Others have done so before, and there have been so-called ralliesagainst terrorism.

Yet no one has specifically condemned any of the terrorists by name.Here are a couple of quotes:

A former Kuwaiti information minister, Sad bin Tefla, wrote anarticle in a London Arabic daily, Al Sharq Al Awsat, last Sept. 11entitled "We Are All Bin Laden.'' He asked why Muslim scholars andclerics had eagerly supported fatwas condemning Salman Rushdie todeath after he wrote a novel deemed insulting to Islam, "The SatanicVerses,'' but to this day no Muslim cleric has issued a fatwacondemning Osama bin Laden for murdering nearly 3,000 innocentcivilians, badly damaging Islam.

Thomas L. Friedman, "The Battle of the Pump", The New York Times,October 7, 2004

In Jan 2008, 30 leading Deobandi religious scholars, while declaringsuicide attacks 'haram', rationalised these as a mere reaction to the(Pakistani) government's wrong policies in the tribal areas...... Whydo Pakistanis suddenly lose their voice when it comes to suicidebombings? The bomber - even if he kills pious Muslims or even thosein the act of prayer - kills in the name of Islam. Therefore, peoplemute their criticism lest they be regarded as irreligious or evenblasphemous. Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, in an article ("They Only Know HowTo Kill", The Times of India, March 12, 2002)

NamasteAshok Chowgule

Muslim leader condemns terrorists

Daily Mail ReporterWednesday, March 3, 2010

The leader of a worldwide Muslim movement today issued a fatwacondemning terrorists and suicide bombers as the enemies of Islam.

Pakistan-born Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said there were no 'ifs orbuts' about terrorism and such acts had no justification in the nameof Islam.

In a news conference today he called on Islamic leaders to convey themessage that acts of terrorism cut people off as true followers ofIslam. Muslim scholar, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri,

'They can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdomoperations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma (thewider Muslim community), no, they become heroes of hellfire, and theyare leading towards hellfire,' he said.

'There is no place for any martyrdom and their act is never, ever tobe considered Jihad,' he said.

Dr Qadri, who spoke at length in both English and Arabic before hisaudience, said his fatwa, a religious edict or ruling, was an'absolute' condemnation of terrorism without 'any excuses orpretexts'.

'Good intentions cannot convert a wrong into good, they cannotconvert an evil into good,' he said.

'Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place inIslamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or anykind of excuses or ifs or buts.'

7/7 bomber Shehzad Tanweer

7/7 bomber Shehzad Tanweer in a jihadist video recorded before his death

He insisted that Islam was a religion of peace that promotes beauty,'betterment', goodness and 'negates all form of mischief and strife'.

The 600-page fatwa by Dr Qadri, founder of the global Minhaj-ul-Quranmovement, which has thousands of supporters across the world as wellas in the UK, will be translated into English in the coming weeks.

His talk will also be made available online in an attempt to counterextremist versions of Islam available on the internet.

The fatwa has been billed as 'arguably the most comprehensive'theological refutation of Islamic terrorism to date by counter-extremism think-tank the Quilliam foundation.

The Minhaj-ul-Quran movement said it runs courses in combatingreligious extremism in educational centres throughout Britainincluding London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nelson, Walsall andGlasgow. It currently has an office in Dundee.

A fatwa, an edict issued by a learned Muslim scholar, may concern anyaspect of Islamic life.

The term became famous in the Western world in 1989 after the authorSalman Rushdie was forced into hiding following a 'death fatwa'issued by Ayatollah Khomeni, then Supreme Leader of Iran, on thegrounds that his book, The Satanic Verses, had 'insulted' Islam.

o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educationalpurposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may nothave been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of theposter. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption forfair use of copyrighted works.o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, currente-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others arenot necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use ofwhich may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyrightowner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance theunderstanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believedthat this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material asprovided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed withoutprofit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes bysubscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more informationgo to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlIf you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes ofyour own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from thecopyright owner.

Since newsgroup posts are being removedby forgery by one or more net terrorists,this post may be reposted several times.

Post by and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj)Forwarded message from Ashok ChowguleI do not know why there is such a big fuss about this so-calledfatwa.Others have done so before, and there have been so-called ralliesagainst terrorism.Yet no one has specifically condemned any of the terrorists by name.A former Kuwaiti information minister, Sad bin Tefla, wrote anarticle in a London Arabic daily, Al Sharq Al Awsat, last Sept. 11entitled "We Are All Bin Laden.'' He asked why Muslim scholars andclerics had eagerly supported fatwas condemning Salman Rushdie todeath after he wrote a novel deemed insulting to Islam, "The SatanicVerses,'' but to this day no Muslim cleric has issued a fatwacondemning Osama bin Laden for murdering nearly 3,000 innocentcivilians, badly damaging Islam.Thomas L. Friedman, "The Battle of the Pump", The New York Times,October 7, 2004In Jan 2008, 30 leading Deobandi religious scholars, while declaringsuicide attacks 'haram', rationalised these as a mere reaction to the(Pakistani) government's wrong policies in the tribal areas...... Whydo Pakistanis suddenly lose their voice when it comes to suicidebombings? The bomber - even if he kills pious Muslims or even thosein the act of prayer - kills in the name of Islam. Therefore, peoplemute their criticism lest they be regarded as irreligious or evenblasphemous. Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, in an article ("They Only Know HowTo Kill", The Times of India, March 12, 2002)NamasteAshok ChowguleMuslim leader condemns terroristsDaily Mail ReporterWednesday, March 3, 2010The leader of a worldwide Muslim movement today issued a fatwacondemning terrorists and suicide bombers as the enemies of Islam.Pakistan-born Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said there were no 'ifs orbuts' about terrorism and such acts had no justification in the nameof Islam.In a news conference today he called on Islamic leaders to convey themessage that acts of terrorism cut people off as true followers ofIslam. Muslim scholar, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri,Muslim scholar, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, launches a fatwa - orIslamic religious ruling - that condemns suicide bombings today'They can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdomoperations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma (thewider Muslim community), no, they become heroes of hellfire, and theyare leading towards hellfire,' he said.'There is no place for any martyrdom and their act is never, ever tobe considered Jihad,' he said.Dr Qadri, who spoke at length in both English and Arabic before hisaudience, said his fatwa, a religious edict or ruling, was an'absolute' condemnation of terrorism without 'any excuses orpretexts'.'Good intentions cannot convert a wrong into good, they cannotconvert an evil into good,' he said.'Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place inIslamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or anykind of excuses or ifs or buts.'7/7 bomber Shehzad Tanweer7/7 bomber Shehzad Tanweer in a jihadist video recorded before his deathHe insisted that Islam was a religion of peace that promotes beauty,'betterment', goodness and 'negates all form of mischief and strife'.The 600-page fatwa by Dr Qadri, founder of the global Minhaj-ul-Quranmovement, which has thousands of supporters across the world as wellas in the UK, will be translated into English in the coming weeks.His talk will also be made available online in an attempt to counterextremist versions of Islam available on the internet.The fatwa has been billed as 'arguably the most comprehensive'theological refutation of Islamic terrorism to date by counter-extremism think-tank the Quilliam foundation.The Minhaj-ul-Quran movement said it runs courses in combatingreligious extremism in educational centres throughout Britainincluding London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nelson, Walsall andGlasgow. It currently has an office in Dundee.A fatwa, an edict issued by a learned Muslim scholar, may concern anyaspect of Islamic life.The term became famous in the Western world in 1989 after the authorSalman Rushdie was forced into hiding following a 'death fatwa'issued by Ayatollah Khomeni, then Supreme Leader of Iran, on thegrounds that his book, The Satanic Verses, had 'insulted' Islam. Twin Towers destroyed - September 2001Bali bombings - October 2002Madrid bombings - March 2004London bombings - July 2005Mumbai bombings - July 2006 (and attacks November 2008)Fatwa issued - February 2010Question -- why does it take nearly a decade for a solitary muslimvoice to condemn terrorism? - Paula, Warks, England, 02/3/2010 15:09http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254855/Muslim-leader-condemn...End of forwarded article from Ashok ChowguleJai Maharaj, JyotishiOm Shanti o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educationalpurposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may nothave been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of theposter. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption forfair use of copyrighted works. o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, currente-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number. o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others arenot necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use ofwhich may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyrightowner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance theunderstanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believedthat this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material asprovided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed withoutprofit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes bysubscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more informationgo to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlIf you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes ofyour own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from thecopyright owner.Since newsgroup posts are being removedby forgery by one or more net terrorists,this post may be reposted several times.

Post by and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj)Forwarded message from Ashok ChowguleI do not know why there is such a big fuss about this so-calledfatwa.Others have done so before, and there have been so-called ralliesagainst terrorism.Yet no one has specifically condemned any of the terrorists by name.A former Kuwaiti information minister, Sad bin Tefla, wrote anarticle in a London Arabic daily, Al Sharq Al Awsat, last Sept. 11entitled "We Are All Bin Laden.'' He asked why Muslim scholars andclerics had eagerly supported fatwas condemning Salman Rushdie todeath after he wrote a novel deemed insulting to Islam, "The SatanicVerses,'' but to this day no Muslim cleric has issued a fatwacondemning Osama bin Laden for murdering nearly 3,000 innocentcivilians, badly damaging Islam.Thomas L. Friedman, "The Battle of the Pump", The New York Times,October 7, 2004In Jan 2008, 30 leading Deobandi religious scholars, while declaringsuicide attacks 'haram', rationalised these as a mere reaction to the(Pakistani) government's wrong policies in the tribal areas...... Whydo Pakistanis suddenly lose their voice when it comes to suicidebombings? The bomber - even if he kills pious Muslims or even thosein the act of prayer - kills in the name of Islam. Therefore, peoplemute their criticism lest they be regarded as irreligious or evenblasphemous. Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, in an article ("They Only Know HowTo Kill", The Times of India, March 12, 2002)NamasteAshok ChowguleMuslim leader condemns terroristsDaily Mail ReporterWednesday, March 3, 2010The leader of a worldwide Muslim movement today issued a fatwacondemning terrorists and suicide bombers as the enemies of Islam.Pakistan-born Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri said there were no 'ifs orbuts' about terrorism and such acts had no justification in the nameof Islam.In a news conference today he called on Islamic leaders to convey themessage that acts of terrorism cut people off as true followers ofIslam. Muslim scholar, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri,Muslim scholar, Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, launches a fatwa - orIslamic religious ruling - that condemns suicide bombings today'They can't claim that their suicide bombings are martyrdomoperations and that they become the heroes of the Muslim Umma (thewider Muslim community), no, they become heroes of hellfire, and theyare leading towards hellfire,' he said.'There is no place for any martyrdom and their act is never, ever tobe considered Jihad,' he said.Dr Qadri, who spoke at length in both English and Arabic before hisaudience, said his fatwa, a religious edict or ruling, was an'absolute' condemnation of terrorism without 'any excuses orpretexts'.'Good intentions cannot convert a wrong into good, they cannotconvert an evil into good,' he said.'Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place inIslamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or anykind of excuses or ifs or buts.'7/7 bomber Shehzad Tanweer7/7 bomber Shehzad Tanweer in a jihadist video recorded before his deathHe insisted that Islam was a religion of peace that promotes beauty,'betterment', goodness and 'negates all form of mischief and strife'.The 600-page fatwa by Dr Qadri, founder of the global Minhaj-ul-Quranmovement, which has thousands of supporters across the world as wellas in the UK, will be translated into English in the coming weeks.His talk will also be made available online in an attempt to counterextremist versions of Islam available on the internet.The fatwa has been billed as 'arguably the most comprehensive'theological refutation of Islamic terrorism to date by counter-extremism think-tank the Quilliam foundation.The Minhaj-ul-Quran movement said it runs courses in combatingreligious extremism in educational centres throughout Britainincluding London, Birmingham, Manchester, Nelson, Walsall andGlasgow. It currently has an office in Dundee.A fatwa, an edict issued by a learned Muslim scholar, may concern anyaspect of Islamic life.The term became famous in the Western world in 1989 after the authorSalman Rushdie was forced into hiding following a 'death fatwa'issued by Ayatollah Khomeni, then Supreme Leader of Iran, on thegrounds that his book, The Satanic Verses, had 'insulted' Islam. Twin Towers destroyed - September 2001Bali bombings - October 2002Madrid bombings - March 2004London bombings - July 2005Mumbai bombings - July 2006 (and attacks November 2008)Fatwa issued - February 2010Question -- why does it take nearly a decade for a solitary muslimvoice to condemn terrorism? - Paula, Warks, England, 02/3/2010 15:09http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254855/Muslim-leader-condemn...End of forwarded article from Ashok ChowguleJai Maharaj, JyotishiOm Shanti o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educationalpurposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may nothave been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of theposter. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption forfair use of copyrighted works. o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, currente-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number. o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others arenot necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use ofwhich may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyrightowner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance theunderstanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believedthat this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material asprovided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed withoutprofit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes bysubscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more informationgo to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlIf you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes ofyour own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from thecopyright owner.Since newsgroup posts are being removedby forgery by one or more net terrorists,this post may be reposted several times.

Dr. Subramanian Swamy (b. 15 September 1939 at Chennai, sometimesspelt as Subramaniam Swamy) is a politician from India. He is also atrained economist.

Personal life

Subramanian Swamy has two daughters, Gitanjali Swamy and SuhasiniHaider. Suhasini is a journalist with Indian television channel CNN-IBN. His wife Dr. Roxna Swamy is an Advocate in the Supreme Court ofIndia.

Association with Harvard

Following his time at the Indian Statistical Institute, he was awardeda doctorate by Harvard University in 1964. Two of his advisors at thetime were Simon Kuznets and Paul A. Samuelson[1]. For a time, whilecompleting his dissertation in 1963, he worked in the UN Secretariatat New York as Assistant Economics Affairs Officer. He subsequentlyworked as a resident tutor at Lowell House, and as an assistantprofessor for the Harvard Economics department where he later becamean Associate professor in 1969. Subsequently he has been a regularlyteaching at the rank of full Professor at the Harvard Summer School.He is accounted by some to be an authority on the comparative study ofIndia and China[2] and is also well-versed in the Mandarin Chinese(Hanyu) language[3].

Association with IITs

He was Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of TechnologyDelhi from 1969. He was removed from the position by its board ofGovernors in the early 1970s but was legally reinstated in the late1980s by the Supreme Court of India. He continued in the position till1991 when he resigned to become a cabinet minister. He served on theBoard of Governors of the IIT, Delhi (1977-80), and on the Council ofIITs (1980-82).

Political career

He is regarded as a proponent of Hindutva as a political concept. Hefirst came into spotlight for protesting against the emergency imposedin 1975. He was one of the founding members of the Janata Party and isits president since 1990. He was elected member of parliament 5 timesbetween 1974 and 1999. He has twice represented the city of MumbaiNorth East during 1977 and 1980, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in theParliament.

He is known for his efforts in normalizing relations with China andIsrael. In 1981, he persuaded Deng Xiaoping to open the KailashMansarovar in Tibet to Hindu pilgrims from India[4]. In 1990-1991, hewas a minister in the Chandra Shekhar cabinet and was in charge of theministries of Commerce and Law and Justice.

He was also a member of the Planning Commission between 1990 and 1991.Between 1994 and 1996, he held the position of Chairman of theCommission on Labour Standards and International Trade (equivalent tothe rank of a cabinet minister) under the P. V. Narasimha Raogovernment. Dr. Swamy has been subject to several defamation cases. Heis known to argue these cases himself without the agency of lawyers.

He has enjoyed a strange maverick relationship with J. Jayalalithaa.He was perceived as instrumental in bringing the disproportionateassets case of J. Jayalalithaa into public notice in the 1990s but by1997, he had become her political adviser and was instrumental inconvincing her to withdraw support from the Vajpayee Government in1999. The alliance with Jayalalithaa ended after she lost the GeneralElections held in the same year.

In October 2004, he along with other members of the erstwhile JanataParty established the Rashtriya Swabhiman Manch to oppose the policiesof the ruling UPA.

He has played an important role in fighting for the cause ofpreventing the destruction of Rama Sethu bridge. He moved the SupremeCourt of India and successfully obtained a stay for the SethusamudramShipping Canal Project at the final hours on August 31, 2007. The caseis under hearing before the Supreme Court.

Most recently Dr. Swamy has been crusading for proper electoralgovernance in the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) in theIndian Elections. Dr. Swamy has been one of the few petitioners, whohas successfully petitioned the Indian Courts to look in to seriouselectoral mis-management potential in the use of Electronic VotingMachines (EVM) during the Indian Elections from 2001 through 2009.Following a preliminary hearing in the Delhi High Court in late 2009,the Chief Justice of the High Court concurred with Dr. Swamy'spetition and admitted the matter for a full hearing in early 2010. Dr.Swamy has argued that any electoral mechanism such as an EVM mustprovide full audit-ability, account-ability and transparency and thatIndian Election Commission's current EVM has neither of the three.Additionally the technology is in direct violation of the IndianInformation Technology Act. The matter is currently underconsideration in the Indian Courts.

He has been very effective in the Courts fighting for justice and hasused the Courts effectively on issues of public importance. It isworth noting that he is an economist but has been very successfularguing PILs in Court for the public good.

Stance against the LTTE

He is noted for his consistent stance against the LTTE which isproscribed as a terrorist organization by 31 countries

“ LTTE is a part of the Sri Lankan problem, and can never be a part ofthe solution[6] ”

His stance against the LTTE has had five successive Indian governmentsplace him in the Z category of Indian security, with security cover ofat least 22 personnel because of the high LTTE threat to his life.[7]Subramanian Swamy was attacked by a group of pro-LTTE lawyers .[8]Violent clashes between the Tamil Nadu police and practicing lawyersoccurred on the 19th of February 2009 on the Madras High Courtpremises.

Books

Dr. Subramanian Swamy is the author of numerous books and writesregularly in various journals and newspapers, some of his books are :-

RAMANATHAPURAM, FEB 26. The people belonging to minority communitieswill always live in fear if the Bharatiya Janata Party is voted topower again in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Janata Partypresident, Subramanian Swamy, told presspersons at Pasumpon village onThursday.

Dr. Swamy said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had failed toensure the welfare of minorities and it was evident from the fact thatMuslims were put to untold hardships in Gujarat. "They feel a sense ofinsecurity throughout the country."

The Government should take necessary steps to arrest the generalsecretary of the MDMK, Vaiko, if he continued to support the LTTE orpraise its leader in public meetings.

No party would get simple majority in the coming Lok Sabha elections,he said and predicted a hung Parliament.

Dr. Swamy wondered how the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, couldtolerate the issue of the foreign origin of the Congress president,Sonia Gandhi, as he had termed the former Chief Minister, M.G.Ramachandran, a Malayalee when the AIADMK formed the Government in theState.

Dr. Swamy urged the Government to give no objection certificate to theCentral Government to name the Madurai airport as PasumponMuthuramalinga Thevar Airport. The State Government had twice rejectedthe requisition of the Central Government.

The Janata Party would approach the court to issue a direction to theState Government in this connection after the elections.

Earlier, speaking at a function organised by the family ofMuthuramalinga Thevar in recognition of his (Dr. Swamy's) efforts ininstalling the Thevar statue in Parliament House, Dr. Swamy said theJanata Party would take the necessary steps to set up a modernuniversity in the name of Thevar at Pasumpon.

He appealed to the Government to include the life history of Thevar asone of the subjects in the college curriculum in order to facilitatethe younger generation to know about the heroic deeds of Thevar andhis dedication towards the betterment of society.

http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/27/stories/2004022706661100.htm

Need for ‘Hindu vote bank’: SwamySpecial Correspondent

TIRUPATI: Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday said theonly way to counter vote-bank policies blindly pursued by governmentsand political parties was to develop a strong and formidable “Hinduvote bank.” It was the only way to check the “continued neglect andsubjugation of Hindus and Hindu temples,” he said.

Dr. Swamy criticised the United Progressive Alliance government forits attempt to “bend over backwards” to protect mosques and churcheswhile showing “utter indifference” to protect the Hindu shrines andsentiments.

He was addressing a convention organised by the Andhra Pradesh HinduTemples Protection Committee.

Dr. Swamy said that though there were 42 mosques in Ayodhya where noprayers were offered, Muslims were laying claim to the disputed RamJanmabhoomi alone.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/02/17/stories/2009021759811100.htm

GOVERNMENT

Pulls and pressuresThe days leading up to the swearing-in of the BJP Government weremarked by hard bargaining by some of the party's allies.

V. VENKATESANin New Delhi

IMMEDIATELY after the Election Commission formally notified theresults of the Lok Sabha elections and informed President K.R.Narayanan about it on March 10, the President began a consultativeprocess to constitute a new government. The Election Commission hadearlier announced that the new Lok Sabha would be constituted beforeMarch 12, and the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and itsallies, which had emerged as the largest combination of pre-electionallies but had fallen short of a majority in Parliament, were underthe impression that the numbers game would begin on or after March 12.The initial public statements of leaders of the Congress(I) and theUnited Front seemed to indicate that they would endeavour to preventthe BJP from coming to power.

Thus, when the President invited BJP Parliamentary Party leader AtalBehari Vajpayee for a discussion on government formation on March 10,BJP leaders were taken by surprise. Vajpayee was holding talks withthe alliance partners when the President's invitation was received.Vajpayee read out the contents of the letter to newspersons. In hisletter, Narayanan offered his felicitations to Vajpayee on hiselection as the leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party. He gaveVajpayee the first opportunity to let him know whether he would beable and willing to form a stable government which could secure theconfidence of the Lok Sabha. The President noted that the BJP hademerged as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha and the politicalformation that it headed was the largest combination of pre-electionallies.

However, when Vajpayee gave a written undertaking to the Presidentthat he was in a position to form a stable government that couldcommand the confidence of the House, the President asked for documentsto support the claim that the BJP and its allies had strength of 252seats. The BJP had hardly expected the President to insist ondocumentary proof of its parliamentary support.

Only a day earlier, the leaders of the BJP and its allies had met atVajpayee's residence in New Delhi to discuss the contents of theNational Agenda for Governance, a programme of action for a governmentof the BJP and its allies. It did not occur to any of the BJP'sstrategists that they should secure formal letters of support from theleaders of the allies. The BJP took the support of its pre-electionallies for granted, when it publicised the letters of support given bythe post-election allies and some independents. With the assuredsupport of 12 more MPs - either independents or those belonging topost-election allies - the saffron alliance was seemingly in aposition to secure 264 votes.

In the belief that the process of securing letters of support from thealliance partners would be a mere formality, Vajpayee decided to getback to the President on March 11 with the letters. But trouble arosewhen four of the BJP's five allies in Tamil Nadu - the All India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the Pattali Makkal Katchi, theJanata Party and the Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress - did not send in theirletters. (The fifth ally, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(MDMK), had sent its letter of support by facsimile to the Presidentand a copy of it to Vajpayee.)

Unable to secure all the letters, Vajpayee postponed his meeting withthe President to March 12. Anxiety was writ large on the faces of BJPleaders as AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha, who was coordinatingthe actions of the smaller parties in her alliance in Tamil Nadu,continued to hold back although she had repeatedly made publicstatements right up until March 9 to the effect that her party and itsallies would offer "unconditional support" to a Vajpayee-ledgovernment. The BJP was also concerned that the perception of amisunderstanding with a major alliance partner would not bode well forits claim to form a stable government.

A senior leader in charge of party affairs in the southern States saidthat the delay had been occasioned by the fact that Jayalalitha wasunwell on March 11. All of March 12, BJP leaders in Delhi desperatelytried to contact Jayalalitha in Chennai, but she was incommunicado.More ominously for the BJP, she persuaded the MDMK to withdraw theletter of support it had faxed to the President.

The first indication of the reasons for the delay in the despatch ofthe letters from Chennai came from Janata Party leader SubramanianSwamy. Appearing on television, Subramanian Swamy said thatJayalalitha had requested the BJP to appoint him Finance Minister andTRC leader Vazhapadi K. Ramamurthy Home Minister. Subramanian Swamysaid that BJP leaders had refused to concede the request. SubramanianSwamy's references to the demand for the dismissal of the DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government in Tamil Nadu in the light of theFebruary 14 Coimbatore blasts seemed to indicate that a commitment onthat was a "pre-condition" for the AIADMK's "unconditional" supportfor a BJP-led government.

Although some sections in the BJP were in favour of concedingJayalalitha's "demands", Vajpayee and party president L.K. Advani wereunwilling to appease her beyond a point. The BJP refused to concedeJayalalitha's request on ministerial appointments, and were not quiteso categorical on the demand for the dismissal of the DMK Government.It was for this reason that the AIADMK and the PMK said that theywould not join a BJP-led ministry.

BJP leaders were nevertheless optimistic that the letters of supportwould arrive in Delhi with a special messenger on the morning flightfrom Chennai on March 12. What they did not know was that the lettersof support had already been despatched to Delhi: they were in thecustody of a senior AIADMK leader who was waiting for a nod from"Amma" in Chennai so as to deliver the letters to the President.

After waiting for nearly two days, Vajpayee virtually gave up hisefforts: he met the President at 7.30 p.m. on March 12 and furnished alist of 240 MPs from whom he had letters of support. The names of thethree MDMK MPs who had withdrawn their letters of support, however,figured in this list. In effect, as on March 12, Vajpayee had thesupport of only 237 members of the Lok Sabha, considerably short of amajority. Vajpayee, therefore, did not stake his claim, but left it tothe discretion of the President to decide whether he could be invitedto form a government. The President then announced that he would beginconsultations with leaders of the other political formations withoutdismissing the BJP's claim.

Meanwhile, Subramanian Swamy stepped up his efforts to widen the gulfbetween Jayalalitha and the BJP. He accused the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) of blocking his appointment as Finance Minister - forwhich, he claimed, he was eminently qualified, given his teachingexperience in Harvard. Ramamurthy suggested that the BJP was payingthe price for taking its allies in Tamil Nadu for granted.

Subramanian Swamy refused to concede that the AIADMK-led grouping'salliance with the BJP had broken down or that it would have to exploreother alternatives. He, however, said that he believed that the doorwas open for talks with the Congress(I) and that he expectedCongress(I) leaders to open channels of communication with Jayalalithain the changed political context. Subramanian Swamy envisaged a grandalliance, which would include the Congress(I), the AIADMK and itsallies, all the United Front constituents except the DMK, the TamilMaanila Congress and the Telugu Desam Party, a few other minor partiesand some independents. Senior Congress(I) leader Sharad Pawar wasreportedly in touch with Jayalalitha, seeking her support for aCongress-led government.

In their meetings with the President, leaders of the Congress(I) andthe U.F. reportedly sought four days' time to hold consultations andexplore the possibility of forming an alternative government. This ineffect gave the BJP and the AIADMK an opportunity to patch up. Buteven on March 13, Jayalalitha showed no signs of relenting. She deniedthat she had insisted on the allotment of key portfolios for herallies or the dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu as a pre-condition for extending support.

However, she accused the BJP leadership of displaying a "negativeattitude" when she raised issues that were of importance to Tamil Naduat a meeting of the BJP and its allies in New Delhi on March 9 (seeseparate story). BJP leaders, in turn, wondered why Jayalalitha hadnot raised the issue when she addressed newspersons and expressed hertotal and unconditional support to a BJP-led government after themeeting. They said that while all her demands could be negotiated, themanner in which she had raised them - on the eve of the President'sinvitation to Vajpayee to form a government - was somewhat mystifying."We expected her to behave in a mature way," a senior BJP leader fromthe South said.

Finally, on March 14, Jayalalitha announced her decision to forwardthe letters of support to the President. Relieved, the BJP prepared tosend a senior emissary on behalf of Vajpayee to meet her on March 15in Chennai. Senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who met her in Chennai onMarch 15 and showed her a draft of the National Agenda, succeeded inpersuading her to drop her demand to give Subramanian Swamy aministerial post; he also got her to agree to the AIADMK, the PMK andthe TRC joining the Ministry.

The draft of the National Agenda incorporated, even if only insomewhat vague terms, all her publicly stated demands.

WHAT explains the turnaround by Jayalalitha? AIADMK leaders in Delhiexplained that she was persuaded to fall in line and support the BJPin view of the adverse criticism in the media holding her responsiblefor blocking Vajpayee's assumption of office as Prime Minister.

Jayalalitha's decision that the AIADMK and some of its allies wouldjoin the Ministry was prompted by the knowledge that the President wasunlikely to invite Vajpayee to form a government unless these allies,which command a combined strength of 27 MPs in the Lok Sabha, wereready to join the Government.

On March 15, after Jayalalitha announced in Chennai that the AIADMK,the PMK and the TRC would join the Government, the President contactedthe AIADMK's Parliamentary Party leader, G. Swaminathan.

He indicated that only if all the constituents of a coalitionparticipated in the government would the coalition remain cohesive; hefurther indicated that his decision on whether to invite Vajpayee toform a government would hinge on this.

Shortly after receiving her confirmatory message, the Presidentappointed Vajpayee Prime Minister and set March 19 as the date of theswearing-in of the government. He also asked Vajpayee to seek aconfidence vote in the Lok Sabha by March 29.

Significantly, the President did not consider it necessary to insiston a commitment from the Trinamul Congress, a member of the BJP-ledalliance, that it would participate in the government. The TrinamulCongress has only seven MPs in the Lok Sabha, whereas the AIADMK-ledcombine has 27 members.

In a communique issued on the night of March 15, in which he detailedthe consultation process he had initiated since March 10, thePresident referred to Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi's reportedremarks to newspersons that the party did not have the numbers to forma government.

He also took into consideration the Telugu Desam Party's stand -ascertained in a telephonic discussion with its leader N. ChandrababuNaidu - that the party would remain neutral during the vote ofconfidence.

It was these two factors that finally convinced the President that aVajpayee-led Government would be able to secure the confidence of theHouse.

Dealing with JayalalithaAfter the Jaswant Singh-Jayalalitha meeting, the AIADMK has fallensilent; Subramanian Swamy, however, has stepped up his offensiveagainst the BJP.

T.S. SUBRAMANIANin Chennai

GOING by the current mood in BJP circles in Tamil Nadu, the party willadopt a tough stand with respect to the All India Anna DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha willnow have to choose between the BJP and Janata Party leader SubramanianSwamy. The BJP is said to have indicated to her that she would have tomake her choice before the Budget session of the Lok Sabha begins onMay 27. BJP sources in Chennai told Frontline that the party would notaccept Subramanian Swamy's presence in the AIADMK-led front in TamilNadu if he continued to say that he would topple the VajpayeeGovernment.

BJP leader Jaswant Singh flew in from Delhi and met Jayalalitha at herPayyanoor retreat, 60 km from Chennai, on April 25. Sources said thatJaswant Singh did some "plain talking". He apparently told Jayalalithathat the BJP would not accept her three major demands: dismissal ofthe Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government in Tamil Nadu; theremoval of Ram Jethmalani and Ramakrishna Hegde from the UnionCabinet; and action against a private television channel based inChennai. The sources added that Jaswant Singh ruled out a place forSubramanian Swamy in the coordination committee. He also told her toput an end to attacks by some AIADMK functionaries on Jethmalani andHegde.

Jaswant Singh met Jayalalitha against the background of a slangingmatch between Jethmalani and Hegde on the one hand and AIADMKMinisters at the Centre, M. Thambi Durai, R. Janarthanan and R.K.Kumar, on the other. The row followed the April 8 resignation of UnionSurface Transport Minister Sedapatti R. Muthiah of the AIADMK after aChennai court framed charges against him in a case of acquisition ofassets disproportionate to his known source of income during histenure as the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly from July 1991 toOctober 1994.

The situation worsened a week later. After a meeting of the AIADMKexecutive committee on April 15, Jayalalitha demanded that all UnionMinisters who were charge-sheeted in corruption cases resign or bedismissed by the Prime Minister. The next day, Jethamalani and Hegdestrongly criticised her and predicted that these "pinpricks" would endsoon.

On April 18 Jayalalitha wrote to Vajpayee naming three Ministers -Communications Minister Buta Singh, Urban Development MinisterJethmalani and Commerce Minister Hegde - as being involved in cases ofcorruption and demanding their removal or the re-induction of Muthiah.On April 19 Jethmalani again launched a broadside against Jayalalitha.He took on Subramanian Swamy too. "It is clearly Dr. Subramanian Swamywho is pushing her into making all these wild demands," he said. Hegdewanted Vajpayee to go in for fresh elections instead of giving in toJayalalitha's "blackmail". In reply, Thambi Durai, Kumar andJanarthanan, in a statement on April 23, asked Vajpayee to "advise Mr.Hegde to either shut up or get out."

It was at this stage that the BJP high command intervened and sentJaswant Singh to meet Jayalalitha. Jaswant Singh had earlier come inMarch to placate her when she delayed giving the letters of supportthat would enable Vajpayee to form the government. BJP sources saidthat this time Jaswant Singh made it clear that junior Ministers ofthe AIADMK should not speak out of turn. If the AIADMK leadership hadsomething to say, Jayalalitha should be the one to say that, he said.He also advised her against rushing to the media. The BJP high commandwas annoyed that her letter to Vajpayee had been released to themedia.

Jaswant Singh was reportedly categorical about the BJP's decision notto invoke Article 356 to dismiss the DMK Government. A senior BJPsource said: "We are tightening the screws. The idea is that this warof words cannot go on... You will find a change from now on."

There was no word from Jayalalitha about the meeting. Sources inChennai indicated that there was no meeting ground between Jayalalithaand Jaswant Singh. Jaswant Singh, however, claimed that the "missionwas a success". On the welter of charges and counter-allegations madeby Union Ministers, he said that the Prime Minister "will take suchaction as he deems fit and proper."

The same day K.L. Sharma said in New Delhi that Subramanian Swamywould not be included in the coordination committee because he hadfailed to vote for the Government in the vote of confidence.

WHETHER by accident or design, a DMK executive meeting presided overby Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on April 25 condemned the demand forthe dismissal of the Government that emanated from an "enemy party"and Union Ministers belonging to it as "blatant blackmail" and "devoidof any merit at all". It added that the demand was made "to subservetheir vested interests, with palpable mala fides in order to avoidaccountability to the courts of law in the pending cases ofcorruption."

The resolution also condemned the transfer of Union Special Secretaryfor Home Ashok Kumar, one of two officials sent as part of the Centralteam to study the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu, and said thatthis was done because he told the "truth". The resolution said thatthis approach amounted to "burying" federalism and marked a"dictatorial trend in interfering in the State Government's affairs."

The resolution added: "In the event of any such proclamation (fordismissal) being made in Delhi because of the blackmail of the vestedinterests," it would be "resisted by constitutional, lawful andpeaceful methods in courts of law." The executive committee appealedto all democratic forces "to support this resistance movement."

When a reporter asked Karunanidhi whether the resolution was driven bythe fear that his Government would be dismissed, he said: "This isonly a reply to the threats from some terrorists in Poes Garden."

The Chief Minister called the resolution "an advance notice to theCentre that it should not give room to some people who have beentrying to paralyse the administration and disrupt law and order byrepeatedly claiming that the DMK Government will be dismissed."

AFTER the Jaswant Singh-Jayalalitha meeting, AIADMK leaders fellsilent. However, Subramanian Swamy stepped up the offensive once itwas known that he was not welcome to the coordination committee. Healleged on April 26 that the BJP citing his not having voted for theGovernment was an "excuse" to exclude him from the coordinationcommittee. According to him, the real reason for the crisis was the"asymmetrical application of the criterion" on who should be a UnionMinister. He said that while Muthiah was asked to resign, "tainted"Ministers such as Hegde and Advani were allowed to continue. Advani'scrime - he was charge-sheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case -was not a "political crime", he said, but "a crime against humanityand the integrity of the nation..."

Swamy met Jayalalitha in Chennai on April 27 and said that he was"free to explore the possibility of creating an alternative, secular,patriotic front" at the Centre. He declared that henceforth "innational politics, I am a free bird." He claimed that Jayalalitha hadtold him that Jaswant Singh "never discussed the matter" of hisexclusion from the coordination committee. Although he would considerbreaking away from the BJP-led alliance, he asserted that he continuedto be part and parcel of the AIADMK-led front in Tamil Nadu.

Jayalalitha, BJP sources said, was faced with a difficult situation."If Swamy remains in the AIADMK front in Tamil Nadu, then there isnothing wrong in the BJP getting close to somebody who is against her,such as the DMK. She has to choose between the BJP and Swamy."

Meanwhile, Subramanian Swamy has been busy floating the idea of asecular front to oust the BJP-led coalition Government at the Centre.He met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party presidentMulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo PrasadYadav. Meanwhile, Congress(I) leader Madhavrao Scindia met Jayalalithain Chennai, apparently in a bid to build bridges between his party andthe AIADMK.

Political analysts believed that Jayalalitha was left with "nochoice". She could not part company with the BJP because the stakesinvolved were high - there were corruption cases pending against herand her former Ministers, and breaking away from the BJP would weakenher.

The response of the other constituents of the AIADMK-led front toSwamy's challenge will have a bearing on Jayalalitha's future courseof action. Of the three of them - Marumalarchi Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (MDMK), the Pattali Makal Katchi (PMK) and the TamizhagaRajiv Congress (TRC) - the PMK and the TRC are participants in theCentral Government. The PMK had indicated its position when its leaderS. Ramadoss hinted that his party would not play along withSubramanian Swamy.

CHENNAI: Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy has sought the PrimeMinister’s sanction to prosecute Union Communications Minister A. Rajain the wake of CBI raids on Sanchar Bhavan offices to investigatealleged irregularities in spectrum allotment.

In a statement, Dr. Swamy said he filed a petition for sanction asearly as on November 29, 2008 with Dr. Singh, as required under thePrevention of Corruption Act, to launch a criminal investigationagainst Mr. Raja under Sections 11 and 13 of the Act.

The CBI raids made the granting of permission by Dr. Singh a “mereformality,” Dr. Swamy said.

An independent case filed by him in the designated sessions court fortrying cases under the Act would be the best recourse for a fair trialof the spectrum deals and the CBI investigation could supplement thelegal process, he said.

Sanatana Dharma Foundation Honors Dr Subramanian Swamy and Dr S.Kalyanaraman for their Courageous Effort in Protecting the HistoricRama Sethu Sanatana Dharma Foundation, Dallas, Texas organized itsfirst Hindu Unity Day, at the DFW Hindu Temple, in Dallas on the 19thand 20th of July, 2008. Symbolizing Hindu Unity, Representatives ofDallas Chapters of several organizations like the Art of livingFoundation, Ammachi Satsang, Hare Krishna ISCKON group, GayatriParivar, Brahmakumaris, Carribbean Mandir, Chinmaya Mission, HanumanTemple, Sathya Sai groups, Datta Yoga Peetam and other prominent Hindupersonalities from the local Dallas-Fort Worth community in Texas,were present at this unique event. Dr Subramanian Swamy's latest book"Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity" was released and distributed atthe Event, to key members of these organizations and other prominentmembers of the community.

Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity

Hindu Dharma Rakshaka Kshatriya Award

This award, a first of its kind, has been instituted to honor andcelebrate the 'Kshatriya Spirit', specifically the courage shown byHindus in taking risks and standing up to fight for the protection andpreservation of Dharma. The word Kshatriya is a Sanskrit word thatrefers to the royal and noble class of Hindus who historicallydefended their nation, and the Dharma of the land.

Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity

Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) July 26, 2008 -- Dr Subramanian Swamy, PhD,visiting professor of Economics, Harvard University and former UnionLaw Minister of India, and Dr S. Kalyanaraman, Director, SaraswatiRiver Research Center, and President of Sri Rameshwaram Rama SethuRaksha Manch, received awards in Dallas, Texas for their courageouseffort in protecting the historic Rama Sethu, from being destroyed bythe Government of India in the name of a development project.

NASA Photograph of Rama Sethu

Rama Sethu is the original Sanskrit name given to a bridge built bythe legendary King Rama, who crossed over to Sri Lanka from India tofight the King of Lanka, Ravana, recover his wife Sita, and restoreDharma (Order) in the land of India. While it is difficult toestablish the exact historical age of these events, the bridge isthought to be at least 5000 years old, if not much older, making itthe oldest causeway built across an ocean channel. The Rama Sethu isreferred to in numerous ancient Sanskrit texts and scriptures, as aman made structure, and in recent times, it has been vividlyphotographed by both NASA and Indian Satellites.

When India fell under Colonial rule, the British renamed thisconstruction as "Adam's Bridge". The Government of India, in recentyears, has been trying to establish a Shipping Channel between Indiaand Sri Lanka, by breaking and destroying the continuity of thisancient structure. Hindus in India and around the world have beenprotesting and fighting this decision of the Government of India, andhave demanded that the Rama Sethu be declared a monument of historicimportance and a world heritage site. On May 8th, 2008, the SupremeCourt of India directed the Government of India to go back to thedrawing board to see if it can create an alternate shipping route, andat the same time, study the Rama Sethu as a monument of historicimportance. It is yet to be seen if the Government of India willcomply with the Court's direction, and thereby uphold dueconstitutional process, or continue on its path of destroying the RamaSethu, dis-regarding the Supreme court's direction.

Sanatana Dharma Foundation, (www.sdfglobal.org) a Dallas based Non-Profit organization inspired by the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha,(www.acharyasabha.org) the apex body of Hindus in India, presented the"Hindu Dharma Rakshaka Kshatriya Award" to Dr Subramanian Swamy & DrS. Kalyanaraman on the occassion of the Hindu Unity Day organized atthe DFW Hindu Temple in Dallas, Texas on July 19, 2008. Speaking onthe occasion, the President of Sanatana Dharma Foundation, KalyanViswanathan, said that "This award, a first of its kind, has beeninstituted to honor and celebrate the 'Kshatriya Spirit', specificallythe courage shown by Hindus in taking risks and standing up to fightfor the protection and preservation of Dharma. The word Kshatriya is aSanskrit word that refers to the royal and noble class of Hindus whohistorically defended their nation, and the Dharma of the land."

The Highlight of the Hindu Unity Day Event was the speech by DrSubramanian Swamy on his personal experiences during his defense ofRama Sethu in the Supreme Court of India, which was greeted by aspontaneous standing ovation. In presenting the "Hindu Dharma RakshakaKshatriya" Award, his fearless defense in the Supreme Court of India,getting a critical and timely stay order, the subsequent withdrawal ofthe Government of India's petition, and the later Verdict of theSupreme Court were all highlighted.

Dr S. Kalyanaraman made a scholarly presentation on the RiverSaraswati, highlighting the recent research findings, the origins ofthe Vedic civilization on the banks of River Saraswati and the factthat it holds the central "Key" to the re-writing of the history ofIndia and re-establishing the real historicity of the Vedas. Whilepresenting the Award, his dedicated research in supporting thestruggle of the Rama Sethu, and his pioneering contributions inresearching and resurfacing the River Saraswati were lauded.

Symbolizing Hindu Unity, Representatives of Dallas Chapters of severalorganizations like the Art of living Foundation, Ammachi Satsang, HareKrishna ISCKON group, Gayatri Parivar, Brahmakumaris, CarribbeanMandir, Chinmaya Mission, Hanuman Temple, Sathya Sai groups and otherprominent Hindu personalities from the local Dallas-Fort Worthcommunity in Texas, were present at this unique event. Dr SubramanianSwamy's latest book "Rama Sethu Symbol of National Unity" was releasedand distributed at the Event, to key members of these organizationsand other prominent members of the community.

Smt. Ranna Jani, President, DFW Hindu Temple in Texas speaking on theoccassion on behalf of the Temple, thanked both Dr Subramaniam Swamy &Dr S. Kalyanaraman for coming to Dallas and sharing their experienceswith the participants. On the second day, a workshop was organized,where challenges facing Hinduism today, were discussed. Presentationson the state of Hindu Temples in India, challenges posed byChristianity and Islam were also discussed. The session was veryinteractive, and educational, as per the feedback received.

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy calling on Tamil NaduGovernor Surjit Singh Barnala at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai onThursday. Photo: Special ArrangementJanata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday met Tamil NaduGovernor Surjit Singh Barnala and urged him not to sign anyrecommendation of the State government for freeing Nalini Sriharan, alife convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

Dr. Swamy told the Governor that the issue pertaining to prematurerelease of Nalini was still pending before the Madras High Court, andany decision on the issue would amount to contempt of court.

He also made a mention before the First Bench to expedite the hearingof his writ appeal in the matter.

Later speaking to journalists, Dr. Swamy said that he came to knowfrom a section of the media that the review board had reportedlydecided to release Nalini.

He said that he had mentioned before the bench comprising ChiefJustice H.L. Gokhale and K.K. Sasidharan that any decision of theboard would render infructuous his appeal against the single judgeorder to the State government to reconstitute the board to decide thecase of Nalini.

The Chief Justice had asked him to file an application to the HighCourt Registry for speeding up his appeal, he said.

He said the constitution of the board itself was illegal. He plannedto move for restoration of death penalty for Nalini. He said the Stategovernment had earlier said that it would oppose the prematurerelease, now it cannot go back on its stand.

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article87758.ece

Hindu's under SIEGE

aumprakashJanuary 14, 2007

it's fromt the talk given by Dr.subramanya swamy on the day of hisbook relese "hindu's under siege- the way out" http://www.kksfusa.org/it's fromt the talk given by Dr.subramanya swamy on the day of hisbook relese "hindu's under siege- the way out"http://www.kksfusa.org/

Hindu's under SIEGE3:13Added: 3 years agoFrom: aumprakashViews: 3,128

All Comments (30 total)

Loading...nazimquraishi (1

politicians since nehru and including him (the pundits alinged withthe raja of kashmir, who wanted kashmir to not be﻿ free like rest ofindia)

found themselves out of power. so they figured out a formula to getback in power in the democratic structure of india and it worked.

so wake the f up (my indians) my hindus. politicians are only aboutthemselves and their ideas. Not about you.

nazimquraishi (1 week ago) Hindu was a generic term used to refer toanyone who lives south of hindukush mountains and south of Hindu River(Indus per the brits).

Hindu = citizen of hindustan, indian = citizen of india & french =citizen of france.

TAPS711 (1 year ago) Leave the Hindus alone. They have a right tobelieve what they want. They are peaceful﻿ people.

tonyshit80 (11 months ago) No, I will not allows﻿ the such thingshappen....

Radian1991 (1 year ago) Hindu Society has﻿ been suffering a sustainedattack from Islam since the 7th century, from Christianity since the15th century, and this century also from Marxism. The avowed objectiveof each of these three world-conquering movements, with their massiveresources, is the replacement of Hinduism by their own ideology, or ineffect: the destruction of Hinduism.-Dr.Koenraad Elst

Comment(s) marked as spam ShowComment(s) marked as spam Hide

arnotkaling (1 year ago) swamy bastard should be shot. He supportssinhala terrosm in sri﻿ lanka. he fully supported indian terrostinvasion of sri lanka.

NanakLove (1 year ago) not just hindu's but sikhs﻿ too..we gotta standup together brothers

TAPS711 (1 year ago) You﻿ are right.

emperor0989 (1 year ago) sikhs are hindus only, and hindus are sikhs.we are cousins, if﻿ not brothers.

Aumprakash a digital RSS propagandist. A muslim hater and non brahminhater. His lowly life is﻿ based on lies and he survived on lies.

humbleRaj (2 years ago)Nice ideo Aumprakash﻿ Ji :)

badmashguy (2 years ago)It might be true for Hinduism....but isn't it true for﻿ every otherreligion too....humbleRaj (2 years ago) Show Hide +3 Marked as spam Reply Nope,Noneof American Politicians speak against christianity or None﻿ of Theleaders from Islamic Countries condemn Islam, but Indian politiciansabuse Hinduism in India.Peenp (3 years ago)

Janata Party President and former Union Minister Dr. Subramanian Swamytoday told a large UK Hindu gathering at the Sri Krishna Temple herethat to combat the invisible and multi-dimensional siege againstHinduism, all the Dharmacharyas of Hindu religion must come togetherin a formal body with a permanent secretariat in New Delhi.

He said that Swami Dayananda Saraswati of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, nearCoimbatore had already convened a Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha in Mumbaiin mid-October last, and resolved to do so.

Dr. Swamy said that the siege has a religious dimension because of thepernicious and subtle denigration of Hindu icons and Institutions suchas through filing bogus cases against the Kanchi Shankaracharya, apsychological dimension by inculcating a confused mindset through aone-sided secularism, a cultural dimension in propagating that Indiansare Caucasian invaders from beyond Afghanistan through the baselessAryan-Dravidian theory, and in the physical dimension by inducedconversions to Christianity and Islamic terrorism.

"Hindus are being driven out from their homelands in Kashmir,Bangladesh and even Mau in UP, but the political leadership in Indialacks the virile mindset to challenge this denigration of Hindus in a83 percent Hindu populated nation" he added.

Dr. Swamy further said that India is distinctive only because of it'sHindu foundation and continuing civilisation. Hence India as Hindustanmeans a nation of Hindus and those Muslims and Christians who accepttheir ancestors are Hindus.

Parsis may have come from Persia but they accept Hindu culture astheir own. This is our Hindustani identity. Hence, those Christiansand Muslims who do not accept their ancestors as Hindus should go backfrom where they came from or lose their voting rights.

Even Hindus who claim to be racially Aryans or Dravidians have noplace in Hindustan. In Rig Veda "Arya" only meant civilised, whileDravida is a Sanskrit word coined by Adi Sankara to mean south India-where three seas meet.

Dr. Swamy said that without demolishing the caste system a cogentcohesive Hindu identity can not be forged. Hence the Acharya Sabhashould issue a nirdesh" (direction) that according to the Vedas andUttara Gita, varna and jati are not birth based but determined ongunas (merits) and occupation.

"Varna is a choice not a compulsion," he added. (ANI)

http://www.nchtuk.org/content.php?id=288

December 21, 2008

Out of the boxBy Subramanian Swamy

The India of today would not have been in existence had the attemptsto divide Hindus succeeded. In the 20th century, a sinister attempt todivide the Hindu community on caste basis was made in 1932 when theBritish imperialists offered the scheduled castes a separateelectorate.

What does the despicable terror and mayhem in Mumbai on November 26signify for India? Shorn of the human tragedy, wanton destruction, andobnoxious audacity of the terrorists, it signifies a challenge to theidentity of India from radical Islam. Cinema actor Shahrukh Khan maywax eloquent about the ?true Islam? on TV, but it is clear that he andother such Muslims have not read any authoritative translations of theKoran, Sira and Hadith which three together constitute Islam as atheology, and which is a complete menu of intolerance of peoples ofother faiths derisively labeled as kafirs. Hence, instead of talkingabout the ?correct interpretation? of Islam they ought instead beurging for a new Islamic theology consistent with democraticprinciples.

In 2003, two years after the 9/11 murderous and perfidious Islamicassault on USA, resulting in killing of more than 3000 persons withintwo hours, and which was perpetrated by leveraging the democraticfreedoms in USA, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in the website of itsIslamic Affairs Department [www.iad.org] laid down what a ?good?Muslim is expected to do. Dr. Steven Stalinsky of the Middle EastMedia Research Institute[MEMRI] based in Washington DC accessed it andpublished it in issue No.23, of the Institute newsletter, datedNovember 26[what irony!] 2003. I have to thank a NRI in US, Dr.Muthuswamy for this reference. In that site it is stated:

?The Muslims are required to raise the banner of Jihad in order tomake the Word of Allah supreme in this world, to remove all forms ofinjustice and oppression, and to defend the Muslims. If Muslims do nottake up the sword, the evil tyrants of this earth will be able tocontinue oppressing the weak and helpless?

Now who is more authoritative?Sharukh Khan or Saudi Arabia ? Obviouslythe latter. The above quote is what in substance is being taught inevery madrassa in India, and can be traced back to the sayings ofProphet Mohammed. I can quote a plethora of verses from a SaudiArabian translated Koran [e.g., verses 8:12, 8:60, and 33:26] whichverses justify brutal violence against non-believers. If I delved intoSira and Hadith for more quotes, then I could risk generating muchhatred, so it will suffice to say that Islam is not only a theology,but it spans a brutal political ideology which we have to combatsooner or later in realm of ideas.

Some may quote back at me verses from Manusmriti about brutality towomen and scheduled castes. But as a Hindu I have the liberty todisown these verses [since it is a Smriti] and even to seek to re-write a new Smriti as many, for example, Yajnavalkya have done todate. Reform and renaissance is thus inbuilt into Hinduism. But inIslam, the word of the Prophet is final. Sharukh Khan and other glossartists cannot disown these verses, or say that they would re-writethe offensive verses of the Koran. If they do, then they would have torun for their lives as Rushdie and Taslima have had to do. Leave alonere-writing, if anyone draws a cartoon of Prophet Mohammed, there willfollow world-wide violent rioting. But if Hussein draws Durga in themost pornographic posture, the Hindus will only groan but notviolently rampage.

We Hindus have a long recognised tradition of being religious liberalsby nature. We have already proved it enough by welcoming to ourcountry and nurturing Parsis, Jews, Syrian Christians, and MoplahMuslim Arabs who were persecuted elsewhere, when we were 100 per centHindu country.

Moreover, despite a 1000 years of most savage brutalisation of Hindusby Islamic invaders and self-demeaning brain washing by theChristians, even then, Hindus as a majority have adopted secularism asa creed. We have not asked for an apology and compensation for theseatrocities. But the position of Hindus in this land of Bharatmata,where Muslims and Christians locally are in majority, in pockets?suchas in Kashmir and Nagaland, or in small enclaves such as townpanchayats of Tamil Nadu, is terrible and despicable. Even in Keralawhere Hindus are 52 per cent of the population, they have only 25 percent of all the prime jobs in the state, and are silently sufferingtheir plight at the hands of 48 per cent who vote as a vote bank.

The 26/11 Mumbai slaughter therefore should teach us Hindus that thetime has come to wake up and stand up?it is now or never. If we do notstand up now to Islamic terrorism, then India will end up like Beirut,a permanent battlefield of international terrorists, buccaneers,pirates and missionaries.

What does it mean in the 21st century for Hindus to stand up ? I meanby that a mental clarity of the Hindus to defend themselves byeffective deterrent retaliation, and also an intelligent co-option ofother religious groups into the Hindu cultural continuum.

Mental clarity can only come if we are clear about the identity of thenation. What is India? An ancient but continuing civilisation or is ita geographical entity incorporated in 1947 by the Indian IndependenceAct of the British Parliament ? What then does it mean to say ?I am anIndian?? A mere passport holder of the Republic of India or adescendent of the great seers and visionaries of more than 10,000years ? Obviously our identity should be of a nation of an ancient andcontinuing Hindu civilisation, legatees of great rishis and munis, anda highly sophisticated sanatana philosophy.

If Hindu culture is our defining identity then how can we co-opt non-Hindus, especially Muslims and Christians ? By persuading them bysaam, dhaam, bheda and dand that they acknowledge with pride the truththat their ancestors are Hindus. If they do, it means that they acceptHindu culture and enlightened mores. That is, change of religion doesnot mean change of culture. Then we should treat such Muslims andChristians as part of our Brihad Hindu family.

Noted author and editor M.J. Akbar calls this identity as of ?BloodBrothers?. It is an undeniable fact that Muslims and Christians inIndia are descendents of Hindus. In a recent article in the AmericanJournal of Physical Anthropology, an analysis of genetic samples [DNA]show that Muslims in north India are overwhelmingly of the same DNA asHindus proving that Muslims here are descendents of Hindus who hadbeen converted to Islam, rather repositories of foreign DNA depositedby waves of invaders.

Akbar thus asks rhetorically: ?When have the Muslims of India gonewrong?? and answers: ?When they have forgotten their Indian roots?.How apt ! Enlightened Muslims like Akbar therefore must rise to theoccasion and challenge the reactionary religious fundamentalists. Thatis India is not Darul Harab to be trifled with. In a conciliatoryatmosphere the minorities would willingly accept this. It is also intheir interest to accept this reality. Hindus must persuade by thetime honoured methods Muslims and Christians to accept this and itslogical consequences.

This identity was not understood by us earlier because of thedistorted outlook of Jawaharlal Nehru who occupied the Prime Minister?s chair for seventeen formative years after 1947 and for narrowpolitical ends, had fanned a separatist outlook in Muslims andChristians.

The failure to date, to resolve this Nehru created crisis, has notonly confused the majority but confounded the minorities as well inIndia. This confusion has deepened with winter migratory birds such asAmartya Sen descending on the campus of the India International Centreto preach inane taxonomies such as ?multiple identities?.

There has to be an over-riding identity called national identity, andhence we should not be derailed by pedestrian concepts of multiple orsub-identities.

?Without a resolution of the identity crisis today, which requires anexplicit clear answer to this question of who we are, the majoritywill never understand how to relate to the legacy of the nation and inturn to the minorities. Minorities would not understand how to adjustwith the majority if this identity crisis is not resolved. In otherwords, the present dysfunctional perceptional mismatch inunderstanding who we are as a people, is behind most of the communaltension and inter-community distrust in the country.

?In India, the majority is the conglomerate or Brihad Hindu communitywhich represents about 81 per cent of the total Indian population,while minorities are constituted by Muslims [13 per cent] andChristians [3 per cent]. Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, and some othermicroscopic religious groups, represent the remaining three per cent.Though also considered minorities, but really are so close to themajority community in culture that they are considered as a part ofHindu society. Unlike Islam and Christianity, these minority religionswere founded as dissenting theologies of Hinduism. Even Zoroaster canbe traced to leader of Vahikas in Mahabharata who migrated to Persia.Kaikeyi in Ramayana was from Persia when that country was hundred percent Hindu. Thus these religions share the core concepts with Hindussuch as re-incarnation, equality of all religions, and ability to meetGod in this life. That they feel increasingly alienated from Hindusociety nowadays is also the consequence of India?s identity crisiscaused by British historians and their Indian tutees in JNU.

The India of today would not have been in existence had the attemptsto divide Hindus succeeded. In the 20th century, a sinister attempt todivide the Hindu community on caste basis was made in 1932 when theBritish imperialists offered the scheduled castes a separateelectorate. But shrewdly understanding the conspiracy to divide India,Mahatma Gandhi by his fast unto death and Dr. Ambedkar by hisvisionary rejection of separate electorate, foiled the attempt bysigning the Poona Pact.

But the possibility that such attempts at dividing India socially maybe made again in the future, a possibility that cannot be ruled out.Indian patriots will have to watch such attempts very carefully.Segmentation, fragmentation, and finally balkanisation have been partof the historical process in many countries to destroy nationalidentity and thereby cause the political division of the nationitself. Yugoslavia is a recent example of this, which has now beendivided into four countries, largely due to Islamic separatism andSerbian over-reaction.

Virat Hindutva can be achieved in the first stage by Hinduconsolidation, that is achieved by Hindus holding that they are Hindusfirst and last, by disowning primacy to their caste and regionalloyalties. This would require a renaissance in thinking and outlook,that can be fostered only by patient advocacy and intellectualferment.

For this we need a new History text, and a proper understanding of thedistinction between the four varnas [not birth based but by codes ofbehavior for devolution of power in society] and jati [which is birthbased and mostly for marriages]. Just as Valmiki and Vyasa areregarded as Maharshis despite being of different jati from Parasuram,hence Dr. Ambedkar should be called a Maharishi for his sheer depth ofknowledge of Indian history. That he had become bitter because ofNehru systematically sidelining him is no reason not to do so.

India thus needs a Hindu renaissance today that incorporates modernprinciples, e.g., of the irrelevance of birth antecedents, fosteringgender equality, ensuring equality before law, and accountability forall. It is also essential to integrate the entire Indian society onthose principles, irrespective of religion. Uniform Civil Code forexample, is something that the vast majority of Muslim women want, butbecause this demand has been usurped by those who deny the equality ofnationality to the Muslims, hence comes the resistance to a eminentlyreasonable value. The Muslims think that this is the first step inseveral to subjugate them or wipe out their identity. But Muslims havequietly accepted Uniform Criminal Code [the IPC] despite that itcontradicts the Sharia.

In other words, Hindutva has two components?one that Hindus can accept[such as caste abolition, eradication of dowry etc.] without any otherreligion?s interests to consider. The other is the embracing byminorities of the core secular Indian values which have Hindu roots.This would require, particularly Muslims and Christians, toacknowledge that their ancestry is Hindu, and thus own the entireHindu past as their own legacy, and to thus tailor their outlook onthat basis. This would integrate Indian society and make the conceptof an inclusive[Brihad] Hindutva and rooted in India?s continuingcivilisation.

Thus, if India has to decide to have or not have good relations withIsrael, Pakistan, Iran or US, it cannot be on the basis how it willimpact on India?s Muslims and Christians, but on what India?s nationalinterests require. If India has to dispatch troops to Afghanistan,Iraq, Sri Lanka or Nepal to combat terrorism, that policy too has tobe decided on what is good for India, and not what any religious orlinguistic group identifies as it?s interest.

Thus such an Hindutva is positive in outlook, while raw Hinduxenophobia is negative and based on Hindu hegemony which will frightenall. Such a Hindutva will resolve our current energy-sapping identitycrisis, which otherwise will completely emasculate India in the longrun. The choice for the patriotic Indian is thus clear: We need aclear and positive view of our national identity based on our Hindupast and a Hindu renaissance to unite the Hindus with constructivemind-set as well as persuade the minorities to be co-opted culturallywith Hindu society.

Once being Indian means Virat Brihad Hindutva, we can tackle terrorismby an effective strategy of defence. What are the components of thatstrategy is the subject matter of my next column here.

Isolate and confront the rogue state, war no optionBy Subramanian Swamy

Hindus and such Muslims and Christians together constitute theHindustan nation. All others are either permanent residents orforeigners, but therefore should have no voting rights. NRIs abroadwho also acknowledge to be of Hindustani descent can be permitted tobe voters in India.

Since the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has yet not condemned Pakistanfor allowing its territory to be used by ?non-state actors?, such aCommission is all the more necessary. Pakistan cannot be allowed towash its hands off responsibility in this by silence of those who arepaid to speak in Parliament by the tax-payer on behalf of the Indiannation.

Coming back to the question of retaliation for the Mumbai 26/11attack, I advocate US-Israel-India coordinated aerial strikes at allthe prominent training bases of the LeT and JeM in PoK, which action,since it is on a part of India, will not mean an act of war, whateverPakistan may think. This is the mirror-image of the argument thatPakistan itself has used while invading India in 1999 in the Kargilsector i.e., since they consider J&K not a part of India, hencePakistan can invade it!

Terrorist attacks such 26/11 Mumbai carnage can be deterred only byeffective retaliation which will serve as a deterrence against futureattacks. What is an effective retaliation for the 26/11 attacks ? Inmy view, it is bombing of LeT camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-heldterritories. That means war declared by Pakistan. War is however aterrible event in human affairs. It is against the finer and civilisedinstinct of the human being and a temporary triumph of the baseemotions. Wars are imposed either on evil intentions or bymiscalculations. Civilised societies to survive have to be preparedfor such wars. My quick answer thus to the question whether war withPakistan is then inevitable is: Yes!

My substantive answer is that the war will be imposed on us anywaywhether we retaliate or not, by the compulsions of Pakistan?s polity,and we should prepare for a formal war with that country which couldcome anytime within the next four years. The terror genie is now outof the bottle in Pakistan, and an informal ad hoc proxy war is alreadyon between India and Pakistan through Pak-trained terrorists. Itcannot be ended without a decisive formal war. We cannot also go onbleeding like we have during last 20 years, each occasion at the timeand place of choosing of the terrorists of Pakistan. To top it all, weare being dished out Pakistan?s inane argument on the need providing ?proof?, by a government which is a puppet of the trainers of theseterrorists.

Unlike the 1965, 1971, and 1999 wars with Pakistan, this time weshould first prepare instead react by reflecting on who are our realallies in this coming war, and what the post-war situation of adestructed and disarmed Pakistan should be. In 1971, USSR was claimedto be our ally, but it would not let us smash the West Pakistanmilitary machine when the Pakistan army was on all fours on thefloor.

This time, because of nuclear weapons on both sides, the war has to bedecisive. Pakistan must be sanitized and/or further dismembered beyondrecognition. The new Pakistan or the former Pakistans must be led bythose who understand India?s retaliatory capacity.

One thousand years of the foreign invasions of this land have provedthat Hindus will not submit, no matter what the tribulation andpersonal tragedy. Iran, Babylonia, Turkey, Egypt and others of theMiddle East had in contrast submitted and became majority Muslimcountries within a few decades. But Hindus as a whole, despite 1000years of brutality and impoverishment, have stood defiantly. In AkhandHindustan, we are still 75 per cent of the total population despiteall the atrocities.

But now defiance is no more enough. Now we must decisively and finallysettle the issue and defeat our centuries? old tormentors and theviolent theology behind it.

In my last column I had stated that Islamic terrorism cannot be foughtunless we adopt a virat brihad Hindutva concept of identity forIndians, which identity I defined as the mindset of Hindus, who areproud of their Hinduness, and ready to co-opt Muslims and Christiansas blood brothers and sisters if they too proudly acknowledge thetruth that their ancestors are Hindus and that despite change ofreligion their culture does not change [Culture is a secular conceptdefined on the myriad of human relations and attitudes].

Hindus and such Muslims and Christians together constitute theHindustan nation. All others are either permanent residents orforeigners, but therefore should have no voting rights. NRIs abroadwho also acknowledge to be of Hindustani descent can be permitted tobe voters in India.

This mindset in responding to terror must focus on retaliation as adeterrent against terrorism, which is the real meaning of ?zerotolerance? for terrorism. The retaliation cannot be confused withvengeance but has to be defined as effective actions to nullify thepolitical objectives of the patrons of terrorists.

What is, for example, the retaliation for the 26/11 terrorist attackon Mumbai? Or for that matter, the ?menu? of retaliation for all theterrorist attacks since 1989 beginning with when 500,000 Hindus andSikhs were driven out by terrorists from the Kashmir valley?

The retaliation has to be tailored in each terrorist attack to nullifythe political objective of the patrons which objective motivates thatattack.

In the 26/11 attack, the political objective was to demonstrate to theworld that India is a wobbly, flabby, and corrupt country that cannotdefend itself, that anyone can bribe his way with Indians to achievehis nefarious goal. Hence, they want to demonstrate that India is acorroding civilisation, and unworthy being a reliable ally of anycountry. That is why foreign tourists of friendly countries, such asUS and Israel, were chosen for murder.

The terror patrons of Pakistan have, in my opinion, achievedsubstantially this objective by putting a question mark on ourintegrity as a people. How could such an operation, foreigners nowask, be put through without the intelligence having a clue? Is itbecause India ignored timely US intelligence of September that madethe LeT postpone its dastardly project scheduled of September 27th to26/11?

The truth is more bizarre: Intelligence Bureau and RAW did know, butthe information was not acted on by the Maharashtra government. Why?It is rubbish to say that the information was not ?actionable?, i.e.,not specific enough to take counter measures. I have had access tosome of the intelligence supplied to the Maharashtra government, someof it are dated two years ago, which disproves this claim.

One such advisory actually states that LeT-trained terroristsnumbering about a dozen are likely to enter from the sea in theGateway area, and take control of high profile targets such as hotels!Is this not actionable? Or was the Maharashtra Police prevented fromtaking action by Ahmed Patel on behalf of Sonia Gandhi as alluded toby former Chief Minister of the state, Mr. Narayan Rane?

I thought therefore the Opposition in Parliament would have demandedat least a Commission of Inquiry headed by a sitting judge of theSupreme Court to go into all the lapses. Instead they wallowed intalking of national unity. This is not the time to talk of unity withthe government. We are not yet in a formal war to need to talk ofunity with the government. A horrible incident had taken place, and itis over now. Hence, it is the duty of the Opposition to put thegovernment in the dock, and at least demand a Commission to go intothe lapses. When a formal war is launched we can at that stage unitewith the government in a show of unity.

But not now. Since the UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia Gandhi has yet notcondemned Pakistan for allowing its territory to be used by ?non-stateactors?, such a Commission is all the more necessary. Pakistan cannotbe allowed to wash its hands off responsibility in this by silence ofthose who are paid to speak in Parliament by the tax-payer on behalfof the Indian nation.

Considering that the first employer in London in 1965 of Ms. SoniaGandhi was a Pakistani called Salman Thassir, a dubious businessmagnate with perhaps ISI connection, and that the guest of honour atthe select gathering of just 35 invitees to her daughter Priyanka?swedding, was Farida accompanied by her husband Munir Ataullah, bothknown bag persons of prominent Pakistan politicians with ISIconnections, hence, it is a matter of concern that Ms. Sonia Gandhihas not condemned Pakistan for the 26/11 attack, and in fact she hasnot condemned even one terrorist attack starting Mumbai 1993.

Coming back to the question of retaliation for the Mumbai 26/11attack, I advocate US-Israel-India coordinated aerial strikes at allthe prominent training bases of the LeT and JeM in PoK, which action,since it is on a part of India, will not mean an act of war, whateverPakistan may think. This is the mirror-image of the argument thatPakistan itself has used while invading India in 1999 in the Kargilsector i.e., since they consider J&K not a part of India, hencePakistan can invade it!

The US and Israel will probably not agree at present to help in amilitary strike since India has never come to the assistance of US orIsrael in their hour of grief. In fact when on the day Saddam Husseinwas toppled in 2003, a joint BJP-Congress resolution was passed by theLok Sabha condemning US ?imperialism? in Iraq! Nor have we everoffered Israel help whenever a terrorist attack took place in thatcountry?

Hence, to get the US and Israel effectively on our side in this war onterror, we too have to commit to help them in this war, not merely byministers paying a visit to Washington and waxing eloquent aboutbeing ?natural allies?. For all their duplicity, Pakistan underMusharraf in contrast had made a world of difference to the US in itswar on terror. Hence the soft corner for Pakistan in US and Europe.

For example, when New York Times reporter Daniel Pearl?s throat wasslit by LeT, the Pakistan government caught the mastermind Omar Sheikh[whom we had released in the IC hijack matter at Kandahar] and senthim to Guantanomo prison without making noises about ?proof?. More AlQaeda leaders have been captured or killed by the US with thecooperation of Pakistan than by direct action of the US. Nor can theUS keep the Taliban out of Afghanistan without the active support ofPakistan. Hence, it is understandable that the US is in a catch-22situation on Pakistan and we in India, if we want US cooperation, haveto concretely provide a way out of that.

If we strike at the terrorists camps in PoK, the various governmentsof Pakistan cannot sit quiet. There are four other governments ofPakistan besides one headed by Zardari. In addition to his government,there is the Army government operating through the seven corpcommanders, the ISI government working abroad through fake currencyand beautiful women, the Mullah government through Friday prayers inmosques and by brainwashing in madrasas, and the de facto Talibangovernment in the frontier areas. Anyone of these four governments candeclare a war against India on the war cry of jehad, and the otherfour will have to follow. So war is the outcome of any retaliatoryaction of India.

The Supreme Court judgment in the Nakkeeran case is the main tool inthe survival kit for honest media and other critics of politiciansagainst libel litigation.

ON SEPTEMBER 17, the Tamil Nadu Government filed an affidavit in theSupreme Court stating that it had ordered the withdrawal of 125defamation cases filed against The Hindu and various otherpublications. This is a tribute especially to The Hindu `parivar' forshowing guts and challenging the constitutionality of the cases filedagainst its representatives. The Jayalalithaa Government chosediscretion over valour by not risking the Supreme Court striking downthe libel statute itself as unconstitutional. Rather than losepermanently the weapon of state harassment of critics that defamationlaw represents, the Government chose to back down.

This is the second time that the AIADMK State Government has directeda carte blanche withdrawal of defamation cases. The first time was onJanuary 1, 1994 when the Tamil Nadu Government withdrew numerousdefamation cases filed against me in several Sessions Courts in theState. The reason then was the same: the Supreme Court Bench of ChiefJustice M.N. Venkatachalaiah and Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy had heardextensive arguments from me as petitioner in person and the Tamil NaduGovernment counsel on the defamation law, and then orally asked whythe law should not be struck down. The Government counsel then askedfor time, and came back a week later to say that all the cases againstme had been withdrawn. Hence, the cause of action for my petitiondisappeared, and my petition became infructuous. I was personallyrelieved but the law survived for use on another day.

But Justice Jeevan Reddy, who had listened to me with great care, wenton to write a landmark judgment in the Nakkeeran case [1994] thatincorporated the core of my arguments and citations from the UnitedStates Supreme Court and the United Kingdom's House of Lords. Thatjudgment today c. The judgment however needs to be developed furtherby more decided cases further clarified by continued challenge tostate-sponsored defamation litigation that has become far too frequentin the country, so that freedom of speech and expression can becomemore deep and extensive than at present.

Under the Indian Constitution, the fundamental right to free speech(Article 19) is subject to "reasonable restrictions." What isreasonable is subjective in a society; it can only be developed tosome objectivity by cases decided in courts [`case law'] and accordingto the political culture of the times. At present, reasonableness iscodified in two laws — first, in exceptions to criminal culpabilityincorporated in Sections 499 and 500 of the British colonial statuteknown as the Indian Penal Code (1870), and second, the limits to civilliability incorporated as tort law. In India, defamation proceedingscan be initiated under either or both, together or in sequence. Mostdemocratic countries have however done away with the criminal law,which is archaic and draconian. But India has not yet done so.

What is one to do if one receives a court summons for allegeddefamation? For example, I once received a summons from a Delhi courtbecause I had called a BJP leader, V.K. Malhotra, "an ignoramus." Theremark was made by me during the Lok Sabha proceedings, but lifted bya sub-editor and inserted in a column I wrote for the magazine.

Under the law, I had to prove that it was true — or face imprisonment.Now, how does one prove that a person is an ignoramus in a court oflaw? Add to that the harassment I would have to suffer of travellingto court at least 10 times a year for at least five years to attendthe case or face a warrant for my production in court. Or I would haveto engage a lawyer who would charge me a hefty sum. All this for amild rebuke of a political leader? The editor of the magazine decidedhe could not stomach it, so he apologised for printing the remark. Iwas left holding the bag.

However, I fought the case and won. Mr. Malhotra was directed to payme Rs.8,000 as compensation for my petrol bills, which he paid withsome reluctance. Now how did I do it?

I pulled out of my survival kit the first tool of defence: in adefamation case, the aggrieved person must prove "publication," whichmeans Mr. Malhotra would have to prove first that I had, in theoriginal text given to the magazine, written what was printed. Theonus was on him to produce the original. Now which magazine keeps theoriginal? He failed to produce it and I won.

In a 1997 press conference, I made some charges against Chief MinisterM. Karunanidhi. He used Section 199 of the Criminal Procedure Code toget the Public Prosecutor to file a defamation case. This meant thecontest in court was between me and the state, and not between me andthe Chief Minister personally. Thus the Government would spend themoney out of the public exchequer and use Government counsel toprosecute me, a totally unequal contest and wholly unfair (even iflegal).

If Section 199 had not been there, the Chief Minister would havepersonally been the complainant and I would have had the right tocross-examine him. Now which busy politician would like that? Hence, Ipulled out the second tool in my survival kit. I filed an applicationbefore the judge making the point that the alleged defamation relatedto the personal conduct of the Chief Minister and not to anything hedid in the course of public duty. I argued that Section 199 would notapply. Thereafter, the State Public Prosecutor quickly lost interestin the case. Had the judge rejected my prayer, I would have gone inappeal to the Supreme Court and got Section 199 struck down. But alas,I could not.

In 1988 another Chief Minister, Ramakrishna Hegde, filed a suitagainst me under tort law for Rs.2 crore damages for my allegationthat he was tapping telephones and using his office to benefit arelative in land deals. Although ultimately, the Kuldip SinghCommission and a parliamentary committee studying the Telegraph Actupheld my contentions, I would have had a problem had the courtdecided the case before these inquiry reports came out.

So I pulled out the third tool in my survival kit, namely the U.S.Supreme Court case laws, the most famous of which was The New YorkTimes case decided in 1964. Contrary to popular impression, U.S. caselaws on fundamental rights are applicable to India following a SupremeCourt judgment in an Indian Express case in 1959.

Furthermore, since 1994, these U.S. case laws have becomesubstantially a part of Indian law, thanks to Justice Jeevan Reddy'sjudgment in the Nakkeeran case.

The principle in these case laws, restricted to public persons suingfor damages, is wonderfully protective of free speech: if a person inpublic life, including one in government, feels aggrieved by adefamatory statement, then that person must first prove in court thatthe defamatory statement is not only false, but that the maker of thestatement knew it to be false. That is, it must be proved by thedefamed plaintiff to be a reckless disregard of the truth by thedefamer defendant. This principle thus reversed the traditional onuson the defamer to prove his or her allegation, and placed the burdenof proof on the defamed.

This reversal of burden of proof is just, essentially because a publicperson has the opportunity to go before the media and rebut thedefamation in a way aggrieved private persons cannot do. If criticismand allegations against a public person have to be proved in a courtof law, what is likely to happen is that public spirited individualswill be discouraged and thus dissuaded from making the criticism. Thisis what the U.S. Supreme Court in the famous New York Times casecharacterised as a "chilling effect" on public debate; it held this tobe bad for democracy.

Hence the need to balance the protection of reputation in law with thedemocratic need for transparency and vibrant public debate. The U.S.Supreme Court admirably set the balance for freedom and democracy.

Since Mr. Hegde was an intelligent man, he recognised what my survivalstrategy meant. He would have come on the stand in court. He wouldhave been examined and cross-examined on why what I said was not true,and how he knew that I had known all along that my charges were falseand yet I made them. He therefore sent me a message one day wanting toknow if I would call it quits. So his defamation case went from oneadjournment to another, until it lapsed upon his death. Before hispassing, Hegde and I met. Both of us agreed that it was unwise forpoliticians who have so much access to the media to rebut charges tofile defamation cases and waste the time of already overburdenedcourts. I got the impression that some sharp lawyer was behind histemporary loss of judgment in filing the case.

Today, with developing case laws, defamation litigation has become atoothless tiger for politicians to use against the media. There areenough dental tools in my survival kit to ensure this. I am thereforewriting a full Manual on how to expose dishonest politicians and getaway without being harassed in court. I hope honest critics will nomore hesitate to speak their minds about what they know to be thetruth even if they cannot prove this in court beyond a reasonabledoubt.

I am happy therefore that The Hindu chose to fight it out rather thancapitulate. More should follow its lead for a better democracy and afreer media.

(The author, an economist, is a former Union Law Minister. As a rulehe argues his own cases in court without the agency of lawyers.)

http://www.hindu.com/2004/09/21/stories/2004092103551000.htm

Swamy fined for charge against Jaya

New Delhi, January 3

The Delhi High Court today imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Janata PartyPresident and former Union Minister Subramaniam Swamy for levellingcharges against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa that sheknew about the plan of the LTTE to assassinate former Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur in May 1991.

Mr Justice Pradeep Nandrajog said Mr Swamy had failed to establishthat Jayalalithaa had received information and money from the bannedLTTE for the assassination of Gandhi.

“The defendant (Swamy) had exceeded the limits of qualified privilegeas his statement was quite unconnected with and irrelevant to thesituation and suffers from redundancy of the expression,’’ said theorder.

The M.C. Jain Commission of Inquiry was constituted on August 23, 1991by the Centre to look into the circumstances leading to theassassination of Gandhi.

Appearing before the commission, Mr Swamy had said Ms Jayalalithaa wastipped by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) about theassassination of Gandhi by its suicide bombers on April 17, 1991. —UNI

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060104/nation.htm#16

December 03, 2006

Thinkpad

Basic Islam for Hindu DhimmisBy Subramanian Swamy

Temples have been demolished in the Valley on a daily basis. The worldcould not care less. An American had once told me: ?Why should wecare? Indian democracy is led by the majority who are Hindus and youwant us to talk about the human rights of the community of rulers??

We do not have much time, in fact about 45 years, as the X-graph ofstatistical regressions estimated by J.S. Bajaj and colleagues shows. ?X? represents the two trends?Hindu percentage declining and Muslimpercentage rising, and intersecting in the year 2061.

We Hindus must understand the true nature of Islam before we canformulate a strategy to defeat those who threaten us.

Thanks to Shri Vedantamji of the VHP, I had visited Thondi andRasathipuram Municipalities of Ramanathapuram and Vellore districtsrespectively, and was truly shocked by what I saw. Both thesemunicipalities are in Muslim-majority areas, and the local bodieselection had empowered the Muslims with their capture of themunicipalities.

The Muslim-ruled municipalities have thereafter converted these areasinto mini Dar-ul-Islams, in a Hindustan of 83 per cent Hindus! Theminority Hindu areas of the municipality were thus denied civicamenities, funds for schools, garbage clearing etc., and sent noticesin Urdu. Hindus were bluntly told convert to Islam if they wantedcivic facilities.

I could not believe that in South India this was possible where Hindusare actually above national average at 90 per cent of the population.I know that in Kashmir Valley, Muslims who are in majority haveactively or passively connived in driving out half a million Hindusout of their homes and made them refugees in their own country.Temples have been demolished in the Valley on a daily basis. The worldcould not care less. An American had once told me: ?Why should wecare? Indian democracy is led by the majority who are Hindus and youwant us to talk about the human rights of the community of rulers??

Such atrocities are happening not only in Kashmir, but in other partsof India as well in pockets wherever Muslims are in majority, e.g.,Mau and Meerut. In pocket boroughs of India, thus, Dar-ul-Islam hastoday returned to India after two centuries. Considering that ademographic re-structuring is slowly but surely taking place, withHindu majority shrinking everywhere, Dar-ul-Islam in pockets mightindeed, like amoeba, proliferate, coalesce, and jell into afrightening national reality?unless we Hindus wake up and takecorrective action now, actions for which we shall of course not get aNobel Peace Prize.

Dar-ul-Islam is a Muslim religious concept of a land where Muslimsrule, and the non-believers in Islam are termed as Dhimmis. The termDhimmi was coined after the Jews were crushed in Medina [Khaybar to beexact], and the defeated Jews accepted that if they did not convert toIslam, then they would accept second-class status politically,culturally, and religiously. This included zero civil rights includingthe right to modesty of women, and the special tax jaziya.

There is thus no scope for Muslims and non-Muslims uniting as equalsin the political, cultural, or social system in a Dar-ul-Islam whereMuslims rule. Secular order in India thus is possible only whenMuslims are not in power. Thondi, Rasathipuram and other places provethat the Muslim mind suffers from a dangerous duality?of seekingsecularism when out of power and imposing a brutal demeaning theocracyfor non-Muslims when in power.

It is this duality that patriotic Hindus must re-shape by moderneducation and other means, as also retain its demographic overwhelmingmajority in India. We do not have much time, in fact about 45 years,as the X-graph of statistical regressions estimated by J.S. Bajaj andcolleagues shows. ?X? represents the two trends?Hindu percentagedeclining and Muslim percentage rising, and intersecting in the year2061.

The dhimmitude of Jews in Medina and later in Mecca represents thebeginning of religious apartheid inherent and basic to Islamic mores,and practised long before what we saw in South Africa on the basis ofcolour and race, and that which became prevalent during the Islamicimperialist rule in parts of India. Hindus had been dhimmis for sixhundred years in those parts of India despite being a bigger majorityin the country than even today. Hence, a majority is not enough.Hindus need also a Hindu mindset to be free.

In his presidential address to the Muslim League in Lahore in 1940,Mohammed Ali Jinnah had articulated this concept of apartheid in hisown inimitable way:

?To visualise Hindus and Muslims in India uniting to create a commonnation is a mythical concept. It is only a fancy dream of someunawakened Hindu leaders?. The truth is that Hindus and Muslims aretwo different civilisations?. since their thought process grow ondifferent beliefs.?

Large sections of Muslims in India then had rejected Jinnah and hisconcept of non-compatibility of Muslims with Hindus. But afterIndependence and Partition, instead of building on this rejection bymany Muslims, the Nehru era saw increasing pandering precisely to thereligious element that believed in this apartheid. Indira Gandhivigorously continued this appeasement thereby nurturing the apartheidmentality of Muslim orthodoxy.

But the final undermining of the enlightened Muslim came when thegovernment capitulated in the Shah Bano case. Thousands of Muslims haddemonstrated on the streets demanding that the government not bringlegislation that would nullify the Supreme Court?s judgment in theShah Bano case but in vain. Rajiv Gandhi, I learnt later, on counselfrom his Italian Catholic family, had surrendered to the hard lineclerics who protested that the Supreme Court had no right to interfereand to de facto amend the Shariat, the Islamic law code. Theserelatives on a directive from the Vatican thought that if secular lawwould be applied to Muslims, it can be to the Christians too.

This was a nonsense argument of the Muslim clerics, since the Shariathad already been amended, without protest, in the criminal law ofIndia. The Indian Penal Code represents the uniform criminal code thatequally applies to all religious communities. I therefore ask theclerics: if a Muslim is caught stealing, can any court in India directthat his hand at the wrist be cut off as the Shariat prescribes? IfMuslims can accept a uniform criminal code what is the logic inrejecting the uniform civil code?

In India, Dhimmi status for Hindus during Islamic imperialist rule hashad other social implications. Defiant Brahmins and Kshatriyas, whohad refused to convert and chose to remain Hindus, were forced tocarry night-soil and suffer great indignities for their women folk. Orit meant gross mental torture. Guru Tegh Bahadur, for example, had tosee his sons sawed in half, before the pious Guru?s own head wassevered and displayed in public.

The debasement of Hindu society then was such that those targetedvaliant Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who had refused to convert and thusmade to carry night-soil, were disowned by other Hindus and declaredto be asprashya or ?untouchable?. The ranks of the Scheduled Castecommunity, which was not more than 1 per cent of the population beforethe advent of Islam in India, swelled to 14 per cent by the timeMughal rule collapsed.

Thus, today?s SC community, especially those who are still Hindus,consists mostly of those valiant Brahmins and Kshatriyas who hadrefused to become Muslims but preferred ostracization and ignominy inorder to remain Hindus. Hindu society today should offer koti kotipranams to them for keeping the Bhagwa Dhwaj of Hindu religion flyingeven at great personal cost and misery.

I have already written enough in these columns about Hindus beingunder siege from Islamic fanatics and Christian proselytizers. I havesuggested that we can lift this siege only if we develop a Hindumindset, which is a four dimensional concept. But that mind must beinformed, and understand why others do what they do to Hindus beforewe can defeat their nefarious designs. Here I suggest therefore thatwe Hindus must understand the true nature of Islam before we canformulate a strategy to defeat those who threaten us. In a latercolumn I will write about the true nature of Christianity and how tocombat the menace of religious conversions of Hindus.

At this juncture let me add even though I oppose conversion asviolence, as Swami Dayanand Sarasvati boldly wrote to the VaticanPope, nevertheless if an Indian Muslim or Christian changes hisreligion to Hinduism today, I will not regard it as conversion becauseit is a return to the Hindu fold of those whose ancestors had beenforcibly converted.

Unlike Hinduism, which says not a word against non-believers, in factsays that other religions also lead to God, Islam is harsh on them,and justifies violence against them as sacred. The choice to non-believers in Islam is: convert or accept dhimmitude. Hence, theexplanation for Thondi, Rasathipuram, Mau etc., and the duality inethics practised by Muslims everywhere. A true Muslim is Dr. Jekyllwhen in minority, and Mr. Hyde when in majority.

So what should we Hindus do? First, recognise that being a pious Hinduis not enough. Hindus must unite and work to install a Hindu-mindedgovernment. If 35 per cent of the 83 per cent Hindus unite to vote fora party, absolute majority is attainable. If Hindu Dharma AcharyaSabha, RSS, and VHP decide to mobilise the voter to support a partythat espouses an approved Hindu agenda, then the union government iswithin reach through the ballot box. Second, search for those Muslimswho are ready to openly and with pride declare that their ancestorswere Hindus. My guess is that about 75 per cent of Muslims will beready to do so. These are the Muslims who can be co-opted by Hindus tofight Islamic fundamentalism. If we do not do so, then the Muslimclerics will have a free run of their fanaticism.

For this a required reading is Sri Sri Ravishankar?s Hinduism & Islam:Dedicated to the People of Pakistan Who have Forgotten Their Own Roots[www.artofliving.org]. In this Sri Sri Ravishankar has shown how ?Muslims have completely forgotten that their forefathers were Hindus,so they have every right to Vedic culture?. He in fact traces the pre-Islam origins of the K?aaba. Third, invest heavily in primaryeducation to make it world class, ban the madrasas for any studentbelow 21 years, and make Sanskrit a compulsory language for allstudents.

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Published on 14-04-2007 In NationalViewed 2935 times | Written by Cho RamaswamySocial injustice

Karnataka government's ignoring rulings of the courts' in the Cauverytangle is unjust. The Kerala regime's brazen contempt for judgementsin the Mullaperiyar issue is the worst example of chutzpah. But, theTamil Nadu has attempted to do something worse against the SupremeCourt by organising a general strike against its interim pronouncementbecause it is supposed to be "social justice."

The Apex Court had spoken its mind in the matter of 27 percentreservation for "Other Backward Castes" in higher education andordered an interim stay on the law in this respect. Though the TNgovernment opposed and decried the ruling as do most political partiesin the length and breadth of the nation, this is the only state thatdovetailed its allies' [and the entire opposition's] support for astate sponsored "bandh."

"When the case came up for the first time, its plaintiffs – a certainyouths' association was in the process of organising a strike.

The Supreme Court's interim orders, at that point in time, were infavour of the government which had opposed it. Forced to accept thecall of the courts, the body called off its mass action. Now, thestate government has acted in a manner so as to insult the voice ofthe judiciary. Shouldn't the present regime exhibit the same sense ofresponsibility shown earlier by a voluntary organisation," Vijayandemands to know.

The Supreme Court expressed itself explicitly while ordering aninterim stay in the matter of reservation in education.

The court reiterated its earlier orders which had clearly stated thatthe reservations cannot exceed 50 percent…This upper limit [aimed tokeep out] the creamy layer within the Backward Castes was an aspect ofthe [collective] wisdom expressed in the articles enshrined in TheConstitution. If breached, this would defeat the very purpose of theassurance of "equal opportunities" which are the bedrock of all ourlaws, the court said. Ensuring that reservations do not go beyond theprescribed 50 percent limit, that all those who have already beenbenefited by the statute are kept beyond its purview and prevention oftheir indefinite continuance are the duty of the government.Backwardness cannot be a permanent feature and therefore ought not tobecome endless, the court reflected in its interim order.

These above sentiments expressed by the courts have been stressed inmany articles published several times in Thuglak.

This time, the Supreme Court has pointed out that the census of 1931cannot be the basis to determine OBCs. Further it said that such anold yardstick cannot be accepted as the justification for 27 percentreservation in [central] educational institutions.

Those who oppose these averments of the Apex Court naturally point tothe fact that it did not question reservations in government jobs. Butthese sections have failed to comprehend a simple facet of the wholeissue. Different articles in the Constitution have dealt withreservations in jobs and educational institutions separately and havedifferentiated between the two.

While tackling the matter of reservations in jobs, the Constitutionclearly says they are applicable only "to those Backward Classes whichdo not have adequate representation."

Shorn of legalese, this means that the founding fathers of ourConstitution had accepted the fact that certain sections of thepopulation weren't represented in government posts.

But the statute doesn't accept this premise while dealing with theissue of reservations in educational institutions. The article thatdeals with this matter clearly says that the special arrangement ismeant for the uplift of "socially and educationally backward sections"of the population that encompasses "oppressed and scheduled castes[and] tribes…"

Since this was based on the situation that prevailed in 1931 [when thelast census was conducted] questions are bound to be raised about itspresent applicability.

If this distinction between jobs and education is understood, nobodywould say that the two are on an equal plane.

Between the creation of our Constitution and the present day,different amendments were made to include several sections in thepopulace purely to increase political parties' vote banks. Thisresulted in those who depended on merit being totally outnumbered inblatant violation of the tenets of equality stated clearly in theConstitution.

Every time the courts opposed such moves, political parties assailedthe judiciary as a matter of habit. The present order of the SupremeCourt isn't a final denouement. Yet, several political outfits arecondemning it as such. The Tamil Nadu government simply went a stepfurther and organised a "bandh."

"On what basis can the ruling party in Tamil Nadu insist on ourobeying the Supreme Court in the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar issues," isa poser bound to be raised by the ruling [coalitions] in Karnataka andKerala respectively.

Naturally the two "K" states can demand the right to be on an equalfooting with Tamil Nadu in ignoring the Supreme Court!

On several occasions, for different reasons, the powers that be inmany states as well as at the centre have accorded short shrifts tojudgements pronounced in courts. At times, they have rendered theirorders meaningless by amending the laws.

It may happen on this occasion as well.

The words of the judiciary have tasted bitter to governmentsregardless of their being regional or national because the courts basetheir orders on the Constitution while ruling political arrangementstreaded a different measure due to political conveniences.

The latest imbroglio is an attempt on the part of the politicalparties to decimate the bulwarks of democracy enshrined in our laws –equality and justice for all. If the political class succeeds in itsquest, it would be meaningless to call ourselves a democratic state.The alibi for this – the cause of "social justice" – is its veryantithesis.

(Translated from Thuglak by TSV Hari)

http://indiainteracts.in/columnist/2007/04/14/Social-injustice-/

Social injustice

Social justice in India means many things to most people. It is a cointhat offers the solution on one side, and promises to retain itspremium value if the extent of social injustice is allowed to grow onthe other. The side that pays the most during election-time is not theone that has the solution. To the authors of the Constitution usheringin social justice was an honest commitment with an unrealistic time-limit. It was this error in the original document that allowed thepolitical class to turn the policy of job reservation into anopportunity for creating a captive vote-bank. The two-day nationalconvention of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other backwardcommunities in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, organised by the Bharatiya JanataParty is the latest example of the scale of confusion that politiciansare willing to create by making promises that fly in the face of lawand logic. Of course, since every political party is now playing theDalit card, why should the BJP not follow the policy? In the highlycompetitive political game of appearing to be different from the otherin championing the Dalit cause, parties are constantly inventing newagendas. The BJP convention in Mhow has promised to introduce jobreservation in the private sector.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh stole the Dalit thunderlast year by organising a conference of Dalit intellectuals thatadopted a charter of action called the Bhopal Declaration. Withassembly elections round the corner, the BJP has decided to offereverything short of the moon to break the Congress’ grip over thelevers of power in Madhya Pradesh. Real issues becoming “victims” ofnarrow and self-defeating politics have slowed down India’s marchtowards economic progress. Population control is a real issue, that noparty wants to touch for the odium attached to it because of SanjayGandhi. Social justice was a low-key issue until 1989. After Mr V. P.Singh implemented the Mandal Commission report on job reservation, noleader has shown the moral courage to question the rationale of apolicy that has increased the level of general tension withoutoffering social and economic emancipation to the country’s vastunderclass. Adopting a resolution is not going to make the privatesector offer jobs without applying the test of merit. Creation ofmerit will help the Dalits join the expanding mainstream ofprofessional excellence without having to feel small in the eyes oftheir colleagues. How about a policy that allows Dalits admission inthe best schools in the country? That is where the foundations ofacademic excellence are laid. Thereafter, merit alone should be thebenchmark for admission to premium professional courses. Creatingsocial tension by expanding the size of job reservation will some daycause an explosion that would make the post-Mandal riots in thecountry look like a mild tantrum.

Satyameva jayate

The Union Cabinet’s nod to a proposal to make “truth a defence” incontempt cases where aspersions have been cast against a judge islaudable, in that it can remove a gross discrepancy. So far, thecontempt law has been an exception to the fundamental right to thefreedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution.Actually, the Contempt of Court Act, 1971, is silent on whether truthcan be a defence. Perhaps the law was taciturn on this issue becauseit was considered inconceivable that a judge could be fallible. Butthis silence was interpreted in some cases to mean that even if anaspersion was true, it still constituted a contempt of court becauseit lowered the authority and dignity of the court. While attempting toremove this grey area, the government has rather enhanced theauthority of the judiciary because the judges occupy such an exaltedplace in society that fingers should not be pointed at them, not justbecause the law says so, but because the people at large actuallyconsider them to be beyond reproach. If there is foolproof evidenceagainst any member of the fraternity that he erred, then the personmaking the allegation should not be hauled over coals just because thewrongdoer happened to be a judge. This immunity was liable to bemisused. One black sheep could have brought a bad name to the entirecommunity. Even if the unthinkable did not happen, there were chancesthat people’s faith in the integrity of the judges would not be asunflinching as it should be.

Many countries like Australia and New Zealand already have truth asdefence in contempt cases. The Cabinet’s decision that can make thejudiciary more accountable without compromising its autonomy is inline with the proposals of the National Commission to Review theWorking of the Constitution (NCRWC). In fact, many legal luminarieshave been supporting the move strongly. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer hadadvocated in a signed article last year that “… truth and good faithmust be reinstated as sound defences, so that a judge who hassomething to hide may be exposed to the … light of truth”. As he hadconcluded in the Mulgaokar case dealing with “unsavoury” allegationsagainst a senior sitting judge, “a benign neglect, not judicialintemperance, is the sensible therapy of contempt law”. If a politicalconsensus develops on the proposal, the contempt law can be changedwithout amending the Constitution.

Welcome move on KashmirWhy peace must be pursuedPraful Bidwai

Whatever one’s reservations about Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s politicalstyle and his party’s ideology, one must heartily and unstintinglywelcome his decision to visit Kashmir and launch an initiative forreconciliation and peace. His visit was undoubtedly a landmark: onApril 18, he became India’s first Prime Minister to address a publicmeeting in the valley since the “azadi” militancy broke out in 1989.This is itself commendable. It also speaks of a positive change inground reality. His visit, coming six months after the largely freeand fair Legislative Assembly elections, has kindled new hopes, If hisoverture is followed up with wise and purposive moves, we could seesome real progress in resolving one of the most troubled, complex andbloody disputes in the world.

In Srinagar, Mr Vajpayee attempted a “double whammy”. He held out the“hand of friendship” to Pakistan, significantly, from Kashmiri soil.And he offered a dialogue between the Centre and different currents ofopinion in Jammu and Kashmir. Both offers were soon hedged in withconditions. And yet, they indicate a welcome softening of New Delhi’sstance. The change of tone and tenor has outlasted the somewhatdampering effect of the qualifying statements Mr Vajpayee himself madethe following day, reiterating that the talks leading to peace withPakistan would only take place once there is an end to cross-borderterrorism. Yet, the impact of the new tone and tenor is welcome.

Of the two initiatives, on Pakistan, and on domestic arrangementspertaining to Jammu and Kashmir, the first is both more important andlikelier to succeed more quickly than the second — for three reasons.First, Pakistan has responded remarkably positively to India’s offerof a dialogue and said it is willing to hold it “any time, at anyplace and any level.” It has added that it hopes to work out specificdates for negotiations “within days”. Second, there is growingrecognition within both governments that they cannot indefinitelysustain their mutual hostility. They are under increasing pressurefrom the major powers to defuse rivalry and reach mutualaccommodation.

Only six months ago, India and Pakistan were all ready to go to war.The reasons why they didn’t basically continue to hold today. Theglobal situation emerging after the Iraq war has discomfited both byhighlighting their own vulnerability on account of the Kashmir andnuclear issues. Washington, in its most aggressively unilateralist andexpansionist phase today, has threatened to extend the Iraq conflictand also turn its attention to South Asia. On March 31, Secretary ofState Colin Powell told The New York Times that “the whole of thesubcontinent’s problems” were part of the “broad agenda” that the USplans to address soon. South Asian tensions have figured prominentlyin the deliberations of Russia, France and Britain too, who have allcalled for an India-Pakistan dialogue.

And third, a certain momentum favouring a short time-frame for anIndia-Pakistan meeting has been generated, with the planned visit toSouth Asia of US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in earlyMay. Despite the latest suicide attacks by militants, it is likelythat both India and Pakistan will make some positive gestures justahead of that visit. Minister of State for External Affairs DigvijaySingh says there is already some clarity on certain “modalities” for apossible India-Pakistan summit and its agenda. More important, MrArmitage will probably mediate informally between the two governmentsand “facilitate” a future summit — just as he brokered peace betweenthem twice last year.

This doesn’t argue that a Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting will certainlyhappen or succeed. After all, even one terrorist act in India, whetheror not sponsored by Pakistan, can scuttle it altogether. Its successwill depend on how far the two governments are prepared to move awayfrom their stated “first positions” and explore a new detente oragenda of peaceful coexistence.

This, in the first place, means they must accept that war is simplynot an option. Neither side can win it. Their nuclear capability hasbeen a “great leveller”. Nuclear wars cannot be won; they must neverbe fought.

To make the summit successful, Islamabad will have to drop itstraditional emphasis on a plebiscite on Kashmir and 50-year-old UNSecurity Council resolutions. More important, it will have toverifiably give up supporting militant violence in Kashmir as aninstrument to coerce India to the negotiating table. It has torecognise that its support to terrorist militants who kill innocentcivilians at will done nothing to advance the cause of the Kashmiripeople. New Delhi too must do something so that the issue is openedup. The Kashmiri people must be involved in settling it.

India must take the Shimla Agreement of 1972 seriously. Under it, allbilateral issues are to be resolved through peaceful discussion. Sofar, New Delhi has cited the Shimla accord mainly to oppose amultilateral dialogue — but never once discussed Kashmir bilaterallywith Pakistan. Changing all this won’t be easy, but if a robustbeginning is made on the basis of some mutually accepted principles,the process of reconciliation could get rolling. At times like these,process is everything.

The biggest obstacles here will be the hawks in the two countries whohave a stake in perpetuating a state of mutual hostility. In Pakistan,they are jehadi Islamists both inside and outside the army. In India,they are the BJP’s right-wingers who oppose reconciliation withPakistan.

This time around, the BJP has supported Mr Vajpayee’s peace gesture,but somewhat reluctantly. Its first response on April 18 was to opposeit. Earlier, it enthusiastically welcomed External Affairs MinisterYashwant Sinha’s diatribe against Pakistan as a “fitter case” thanIraq for pre-emptive war. Ideological antipathy to Pakistan apart,this is an important election year for the BJP. In four major Assemblyelections it is pitted against the Congress. Rather than embark on anew, uncertain, Kashmir and Pakistan policy, it might be tempted tofall back upon a hawkish line which appeals to its urban eliteconstituency.

Piloting a peace process in such a situation will need statesmanship.Even more difficult will be the domestic Kashmir reconciliationagenda. Here, the Centre has no clarity whatsoever, although peoplelike Mr Vajpayee sense that J&K today offers a great opportunitybecause of its relatively credible election, and the installation of astate government which generates hope with its “healing touch”.

However, the Centre is fumbling at the level of strategy. It said itwould talk to all those who abjure violence. Yet, it refused to invitethe All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, representing 23 different groups,to talks. But it should know that there is little political sense intalking only to “elected representatives”, for most of whom J&K’sintegration with India is unproblematic. It is the others that it mustwin over. They include the APHC. The Hurriyat’s influence may havedeclined. But it still represents a significant current of opinion inKashmir. The Hurriyat would, of course, like the government to applythe “Nagaland formula” to Kashmir: talks at a high political level;exclusively with one group; and a ceasefire. In reality, there are toomany differences between Kashmir and Nagaland, and the APHC and theNSCN. But talking to the Hurriyat on a non-exclusive basis is surelynecessary.

A breakthrough on Kashmir will probably have to wait upon seriousprogress in India-Pakistan relations. But the process ofreconciliation must start, both internally and externally. Far toomuch is at stake — not least, the lives of millions who could turninto radioactive dust should war break out. There is simply noalternative to peace.

MIDDLE

Pathbreaking research!S. Raghunath

A reader writing to the “letters” column of a national newspaper hassaid that the principal reason for the continued brain drain from thecountry is that peons in India are paid more and enjoy a better statusthan scientists.

The All-India Confederation of Peons (AICP) has taken strong exceptionto the tone and tenor of the letter calling it in poor taste andlacking perspective and smacking of an anti-peon bias.

Talking to mediapersons, a spokespeon said: “We peons have been at thereceiving end of malicious and motivated attacks for far too long andit’s about time we took a stand. In actual fact, peons arespearheading pathbreaking research in some of the most esoteric fieldsand their work promises to push back the frontiers of knowledge andpure science. Let me briefly elaborate.”

“Visitors to government offices might have seen surly and ill-temperedpeons sitting motionless for hours on end on rickety wooden stools.Actually, this is part of an ongoing and well-funded research in three-dimensional structural analysis and dynamics of lattice bodies whoseobject is the development of a one-legged wooden stool for use bypeons in government offices. Just imagine the savings in scarce woodthat will result from the development of one-legged stools!”

Continuing, the spokespeon said: “We peons are heavily involved inresearch in greenfield areas of behavioral sciences and reaction ofhuman psyche under deliberate stress. We let visitors who call atgovernment offices to transact legitimate business wait for hours onend, all the while smirking and giving maddeningly vague and evasiveanswers to the query, ‘Will I have to wait much longer to see thesahib?’ and under controlled clinical conditions, we study the stresscaused by our overbearing attitude. I ask you, have Carl Jung orSigmund Freud done any work in these fields of human psychology? Wepeons are doing it and what do we get in return? Only brickbats andnot bouquets.”

“You’ll be interested to know that peons are also actively pursuingresearch in fibre chemistry and textiles. We wear the same khakiuniform for up to 11 months without washing them even once and we’restudying the metabolism of sweat glands on khaki cloth. We hope tosoon achieve a breakthru’ in the development of sweat resistantartificial fibres and textiles.

“No aspect of science and research has escaped our attention and we’reheavily into medical research, too. Peons of our New Delhi chapter andworking in South Block and Shastri Bhavan are engaged in studying theeffect of caffeine in coffee and tea in cardiac functions of well-heeled babus and they have observed marked clinical symptoms likelethargy in disposing of important files and tying the red tape, butalacrity in demanding higher dearness allowance to neutralise therising wholesale price index. They have submitted learned papers tothe Lancet and the British Medical Journal and they are being heldover for publication.”

The spokespeon concluded: “So you can see for yourself that we peonsare working away from the glare of publicity and contributing ourhumble mite to the advancement of scientific research andprogress.”

Sanskrit faces uncertain future in PunjabJangveer Singh

A part of the Punjab Institute of Oriental and Indian Languages inPatiala which has been declared unsafe. — Photo Subhash

Imagine a college with three windowless rooms measuring 12 by 12 feet,having half-broken small wooden benches-cum tables, half of which havebeen placed in the lone verandah of the institution. It is housed in abuilding, part of which is unsafe and out of bounds for the students.

This is the Punjab Institute of Oriental and Indian languages inPatiala. In 1963 the institute was named the Government Institute ofOriental and Modern Indian Languages, Patiala. Before that, it wasknown as the Sanskrit Vidyala. It is the oldest Sanskrit institutionin the state having been set up as early as 1860.

This institution, which was once the pride of the state, has beenignored for decades. It now houses another institution - theGovernment Sanskrit Mahavidyala of Nabha - which was transferred toPatiala in October, 2002. This effectively means there are three smallrooms, a verandah which, on many occasions, is used as a classroom,and a library hall for the staff of the Sanskrit institution, whichnow goes by the high-flying name of Institute of Oriental and IndianLanguages.

“The government has changed the name to give the impression that itwas creating a new institution in which it was merging the Nabhacollege”, says one of the teachers of the institution. He adds thegovernment has not given even a single paisa for the new institution,that shows how concerned it is even about maintaining the loneSanskrit teaching institution of its kind. The institution does nothave even a single room which can be rightly called a classroom. Thereare some rooms on the first floor which are used by the GovernmentPrimary and Middle School. An order to vacate the rooms was passed bya former Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jasbir Singh Bir.

The teacher says part of the college has been renovated through a Rs 1lakh grant given by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during aSangat Darshan programme. The amount was used to strengthen the roofof the library hall and its adjacent verandah, besides renovating tworooms, now occupied by the office staff. “This has ensured that atleast the roof will not fall on our heads”, remarks the teacher,adding that part of the building seems to be beyond repairs and hasbeen sealed off to ensure that no student steps inside.

But the four teachers at the Sanskrit Mahavidyala, Nabha, didn’t havea safe roof above. Their college was closed and they were told toreport for duty at the Patiala institute in October last year. Threeof the teachers joined duty at Patiala, while the fourth is fightingit out in court.

The Nabha institution was run by Acharya Sadhu Ram before it was takenover by Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha. Subsequently, it was taken overby the Pepsu government and, finally, by the Punjab Government on thePepsu state’s merger. A teacher, Basant Lal, now posted at the Patialainstitution, says the institution was upgraded to a college in 1972and was earlier housed in the Nabha fort from where it was shifted toa government building. However, when the building was declared unsafe,it was shifted to a rented building in 1983. In March, 2002 thecollege management was asked not to make new admissions on the pleathat the building was unsafe and the students’ strength had alsodeclined. The college was subsequently merged with the Patialainstitution to form a new institution.

The institutions may have had a tragic history, but sadder still isthe fate of the Sanskrit language in the state. The student strengthin the new institute has come down to an all-time low of 29 againstlast year’s 45. Teachers blame this on lack of any reservation forstudents going in for the Shastri graduate course, which is taughtonly in Sanskrit. They say the students have to compete for jobs withstudents with Sanskrit at the graduation level in which it is taughtin the Hindi medium. “If this is the respect given by the governmentto an advanced Sanskrit course, there is little hope for Sanskrit, itsteachers or Sanskrit institutions in the state”, add the teachers.

Panjab University’s low priority to top centreRavinder Sud

A view of the V.V.B. institute of Sanskrit at Hoshiarpur

The Vishveshvaranand Vishav Bandhu Institute of Sanskrit andIndological Studies located at Sadhu Ashram, Hoshiarpur, is fastlosing the very purpose for which it was set up about 100 years ago onaccount of the indifferent attitude of the authorities of PanjabUniversity, Chandigarh.

This world-renowned research institute, situated on the outskirts ofHoshiarpur city on the Una road and run by Panjab University, offersfive-year postgraduation courses in Shastri and Acharya. There are 75students, including 30 girls and five research scholars. They aregenerally from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Jammu andKashmir. Stipends are given to the students of oriental studies.

Dr Damodar Jha, a former Chairman of this institution, tells TheTribune that there are only 14 teachers as against the sanctionedposts of 32. Four of them are above 60 and four others are going toretire shortly. None of the posts, which had fallen vacant on theretirement of any teacher in the past, was filled.

Besides, the university authorities have shifted six posts from hereto Chandigarh. This has not only adversely affected the studies ofstudents, but also research work in Sanskrit and indological studies,including Vedic interpretation.

There is no hostel facility for girl students and the hostel for boysis run in the rented building of Vishveshvaranand Vedic ResearchInstitute, adds Dr Jha.

This institute has a big library having 73,408 books, 2,676 hand-written manuscripts, 123 research journals and 3,093 photocopies ofrare books which are out of print now. But this institution has notbeen developed further, he complains.

Tracing its genesis, Prof Inder Kumar Uniyal, Director, VVRI, saysthat in 1903 Swami Vishveshvaranand and Nityanand started an office inShimla for preparing word indices of the four principal Vedic Samhitasand a dictionary of the texts. The word indices were issued in fourvolumes in 1908-10 and considerable basic material was collected forthe dictionary.

In 1924 the office was shifted to Lahore where it was put under thecharge of Acharya Vishva Bandhu. Under him, the scope of the institutewas widened so as to include the study of different branches ofindology. The institute also set up a teaching wing with classes forMA, Vidyavachaspati and Shastri in Sanskrit and Prabhakar in Hindi.Panjab University, Lahore, gave a grant of Rs 1,000 in 1936-37 and anequal amount in 1937-38.

The university accorded recognition to the work done by the instituteby publishing “A Vedic Word Concordance” and a complete etymologicaldictionary.

After partition, the institute got uprooted from Lahore. After muchsuffering and loss, it was restarted on its present premises at SadhuAshram, Hoshiarpur.

In 1957, at the instance of the institute, Panjab University openedits Department of Devanagari Transcription of South IndianManuscripts.

Earlier in 1950, Panjab University had extended affiliation to theinstitute for starting various courses of study in Hindi and Sanskritand the University Grants Commission began to give liberal financialaid to the institute. The same year the institute extended itsacademic activity to Chandigarh by setting up a research centrethere.

In the beginning of 1965, Panjab University made a proposal that theinstitute, while continuing to function from Hoshiarpur andmaintaining its entity, should integrate itself with the university.This proposal was accepted. Accordingly, a part of the institute wastaken over by the university under the new name VishveshvaranandInstitute of Sanskrit and Indological Studies (VISIS).

At present 12 research projects, including the compilation of adictionary of Vedic interpretation, are being pursued. There is a longlist of 49 research works in various fields of indology published bythis institute.

The Manuscript and Text Editing Section has a collection of more than10,000 ancient manuscripts, of which 8,360 were catalogueddescriptively in the volume and were published in 1959. Asupplementary catalogue dealing with the remaining manuscripts came tolight in 1975. However, with the transfer of the Lal Chand collectionof rare books and manuscripts to DAV College, Chandigarh, theinstitute now has about 2,300 ancient manuscripts.

The VVRI has published 16 volumes of Vedic Concordance of more than1,1000 pages. The compilation of the dictionary of Vedicinterpretation, which was started by the late Acharya Vishav Bandhu in1965, is yet to be completed.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030429/edit.htm#5

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A compendium of key texts on social justice. It brings out therelational nature of justice as well as the fragmented nature of itsexistence. It explores how law fares in delivering justice, howviolence becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justiceand how the dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence ofmarginal situations.

Full description

Volume I: Social Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is edited byPradip Kumar Bose, Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies inSocial Sciences, Calcutta, Kolkata and Samir Kumar Das, Professor ofPolitical Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata. This first volume ofthe series The State of Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice isa collection of writings on the state of social justice in the present-day West Bengal. It studies the strong disjunction between the notionof enlightened politics, on which the constitutional Left in WestBengal has thrived for several decades, and social justice. Thearticles probe the question: is there a necessary connection betweenthe politics of communism and attainment of social justice? SocialJustice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is based on ethnographicstudies which suggest that while there is a general regime of justicein West Bengal, the rule of law as the main mechanism of justice makeslittle sense in the presence of specific local judicial practices. Itquestions why the archaic rule of law still remains fundamental in thestate governance and concludes that the West Bengal experiencedemonstrates that while democracy may widen through the mass entry ofworkers, peasants and the rural and urban poor, and though this mayfacilitate long-denied political justice for them, this does notensure social justice per se. Volume II: Justice and Law: The Limitsof the Deliverables of Law is edited by Ashok Agrwaal, Lawyer,researcher and civil rights activist and Bharat Bhushan, Editor of theDaily Mail Newspaper . This second volume of the series The State ofJustice in India: Issues of Social Justice brings together the tensionthat brews between law and justice in India. It begins with how ourlegislators had engaged in the discourse on justice at the time of themaking of the constitution. The articles highlight the way law hascreated dichotomies in its attempt to be the guardian for justice. Theauthors have coined the idea of 'justice gap', which unveils the gapbetween the claims for justice and governmental regime of justice.Justice and Law: The Limits of the Deliverables of Law also dealsextensively with the issue of reservation. It has one articledocumenting the history of reservations in India, in the background ofpolitical contentions, elections, and judicial activism. The otherarticle traces how the 'policy game' goes on in the language of courtsand law. Both the articles indicate how the issue of justice isclosely linked to the issue of expansion of democracy. Another articlemeasures the success of the legal system in providing justice to thosein the margins. This one-of-its-kind book will be an invaluableresource for academics and researchers studying sociology, law, socialjustice, political theory and Indian democracy. It will also be usefulfor human rights activists, policy makers, policy analysts and NGOs.Volume III: Marginalities and Justice is edited by Paula Banerjee,Head of the Department of South and South East Asian Studies,University of Calcutta, Kolkata and Mahanirban Calcutta ResearchGroup, Kolkata and Sanjay Chaturvedi, Professor of Political Scienceat the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics and Honorary Director,Centre for the Study of Mid-West and Central Asia, Panjab University,Chandigarh. This third volume of the series The State of Justice inIndia: Issues of Social Justice shows how marginalities in socialspaces marked by power raise the issue of justice. It deals with thesituation of people living in the margins of the society and theirrelationship with communities that enjoy enough material well being tosecure their rights. It reveals how effective governanceunintentionally uses strategies of inclusion, exclusion, differentialexclusion, and, most importantly, techniques of turning spaces into'marginal enclaves', giving rise to injustice, and thereby, the demandfor justice. Marginalities and Justice demonstrates that justice mayemanate from the dynamics of marginality. The same governmentaltechniques that to some extent address issues of social justice, mayproduce marginal positions too. Thus, this collection suggests theexistence of a remainder; it demonstrates what remains outside theoperations of governmentality and explores the arrangement of socialspaces. Volume IV: Key Texts on Social Justice in India is edited bySanam Roohi, Programme Associate, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group,Kolkata and Ranabir Samaddar, Director, Mahanirban Calcutta ResearchGroup, Kolkata. This fourth volume of the series The State of Justicein India: Issues of Social Justice is a compendium of key texts onsocial justice. It brings out the relational nature of justice as wellas the fragmented nature of its existence. Key Texts on Social Justicein India explores how law fares in delivering justice, how violencebecomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice and how thedynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of marginalsituations. Each article is, on one hand, an appeal for justice, and,on the other, a manifesto that state actions fall short of ensuringjustice. This compilation is meant for the students and researchersworking in the fields of justice, sociology and law. It will serve assupplementary text in law as well as a source book that gives acomprehensive analysis of justice in the Indian scenario.

Set in the socio-political milieu of the state of Uttar Pradesh innorth India, this book puts forward an original theoretical approachto analyse subaltern configurations of modernity within the nationstate. It substantiates this approach by weaving the low-casteChamars’ core ethical concerns of humanism with ethnographic accountsof resilient — as well as newly forged — socio-economic hierarchies,internalised ideologies of betterment and reform, and the social racefor progress where contestants are very often same-nation citizens.

Full description

Firmly situated within the analytics of the political economy of anorth Indian province, this book explores self-fashioning in pursuitof the modern amongst low-caste Chamars. Challenging existing accountsof national modernity in the non-West, the book argues that subalternclasses shape their own ideas about modernity by taking and rejectingfrom models of other classes within the same national context. Whiledisplacing the West — in its colonial and non-colonial manifestations— as the immanent comparative focus, the book puts forward a uniqueframework for the analysis of subaltern modernity. This builds on theentanglements between two main trajectories, both of which are viewedas the outcome of the generative impetus of modernisation in India:the first consists of the Chamar appropriation of socio-culturaldistinctions forged by 19th-century Indian middle classes in theirencounter with colonial modernity; the second features the Chamarsubversion of high-caste ideals and practices as a result of low-castepolitics initiated during the 20th century. The author contends thatthese conflicting trends give rise to a temporal antinomy within theChamar politics of self-making, caught up between compulsions of apast modern and of a contemporary one. The eclectic outcome is termedas ‘retro-modernity’. While the book signals a politics of becomingwhose dynamics had previously been overlooked by scholars, itsimultaneously opens up novel avenues for the understanding of non-elite modern life-forms in postcolonial settings.

The book will interest scholars of anthropology, South Asian studies,development studies, gender studies, political science andpostcolonial studies.

2. ‘Today We Can Touch Anything’: Reflections on the Crux of Identityand Political Economy

3. Ethnohistories behind Local and Global Bazaars: Chronicle of aWeaving Community and its Disappearance

4. ‘We Used to Live like Animals’: Education as a Self- and Community-engineering Process

5. Nonrational Modernity? Religious Agency, Science and Spirits

6. Beyond the Vote: Politics as Sociality, Imagination and Identity

7. The Bourgeois Woman and the Half-naked One: Gendering Retro-modernity

8. The Politics of Indian Modernity. Bibliography. About the Author.Index.

Biography

Manuela Ciotti is a social anthropologist with a PhD from the LondonSchool of Economics. She is currently Research Associate at the Centrefor South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh. She has publishedseveral articles in leading journals on topics ranging from education,labour ethnohistory, gender and class transformation, and women’spolitical activism.

Drawing on research she carried out during the tenure of a NuffieldFoundation New Career Development Fellowship, Ciotti is completing hersecond monograph entitled Political Agency and Gender in India(forthcoming). An edited volume entitled Femininities andMasculinities in Indian Politics (forthcoming) develops the differentaspects of the gender and politics nexus. Ciotti’s focus on SouthAsian Studies is intertwined with her interests in anthropologicalepistemologies and the politics of location and representation;converging on these, a monograph provisionally entitled 'ProducingKnowledge in Late Modernity: Lessons from India' is under preparation.

The distinguished Indian lawyer and writer, A. G. Noorani, urges hisreaders in this incisively argued book to look again at some of thekey events and personalities in the struggle against British colonialrule in India.

Full description

The distinguished Indian lawyer and writer, A. G. Noorani, urges hisreaders in this incisively argued book to look again at some of thekey events and personalities in the struggle against British colonialrule in India. He begins with 'the forgotten comradeship' betweenQuaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.Whatever their other differences, both felt passionately about thecause of Indian freedom. Jinnah defended Tilak in his trial in 1916 onsedition charges, and ultimately secured his acquittal. The full textof the legal proceedings, including Jinnah's powerful speeches for thedefence, are included as an appendix. After Tilak's death in 1920,Jinnah continued to work closely with political leaders of allpersuasions and was regarded by the British as one of their mostformidable opponents. Noorani argues that only in 1937, following theconflict over the formation of the provincial ministry in the UnitedProvinces, did Jinnah abandon his hopes of working jointly withCongress to achieve independence. Noorani is firmly of the view thatJinnah wanted a loose confederation in which the rights of the Muslimpopulation were fully guaranteed rather than the separate state ofPakistan as it eventually emerged in 1947. He discusses Jinnah'stactics during the crucial months in 1946 when the Cabinet MissionPlan was on the table, and argues that the Plan offered a viablepossibility of avoiding Partition. In his opinion, the blame for itsfailure rests squarely with Congress and with Gandhi in particular,although trust and imagination were in short supply on all sides. Thebook includes three additional essays by the author, on respectivelywhy the Suhrawardy-Bose plan for a united Bengal failed, the failureto provide effective safeguards for minorities in the partitionscheme, and the Haroon report of 1940, together with the text of somekey documents.

Table of contents

CONTENTS LIST;

PREFACE;

1. A Forgotten Comradeship;

2. After Tilak: Jinnah and Gandhi's Congress;

3. The Widening Divide;

4. Wrecking India's Unity;

5. The Gandhi-Cripps Pact;

6. Demise of the Cabinet Mission's Plan;

7. An Embittered Separation;

8. The United Bengal Episode;

9. Assessing Jinnah;

APPENDICES;

1. JINNAH'S DEFENCE OF TILAK: THE COURT PROCEEDINGS;

2. JINNAH'S BATTLES FOR PRESS FREEDOM;

3. THE LUCKNOW PACT, 1916;

4. JINNAH'S 14 POINTS, 1929;

5. JINNAH-RAJENDRA PRASAD PACT, 1934;

6. THE LAHORE RESOLUTION, 1940;

7. STAFFORD CRIPPS' OFFER 1942;

8. THE C.R. FORMULA 1944;

9. JINNAH'S OFFER OF 12 MAY 1946;

10. THE CONGRESS' OFFER OF 12 MAY 1946;

11. THE CABINET MISSION'S PLAN OF 16 MAY 1946;

12. THE MUSLIM LEAGUE WORKING COMMITTEE'S RESOLUTION ON 31 JANUARY1947 AT KARACHI;

A compendium of key texts on social justice. It brings out therelational nature of justice as well as the fragmented nature of itsexistence. It explores how law fares in delivering justice, howviolence becomes an essential part of the popular notion of justiceand how the dynamics of justice is linked with the emergence ofmarginal situations.

Full description

Volume I: Social Justice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is edited byPradip Kumar Bose, Professor of Sociology, Centre for Studies inSocial Sciences, Calcutta, Kolkata and Samir Kumar Das, Professor ofPolitical Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata. This first volume ofthe series The State of Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice isa collection of writings on the state of social justice in the present-day West Bengal. It studies the strong disjunction between the notionof enlightened politics, on which the constitutional Left in WestBengal has thrived for several decades, and social justice. Thearticles probe the question: is there a necessary connection betweenthe politics of communism and attainment of social justice? SocialJustice and Enlightenment: West Bengal is based on ethnographicstudies which suggest that while there is a general regime of justicein West Bengal, the rule of law as the main mechanism of justice makeslittle sense in the presence of specific local judicial practices. Itquestions why the archaic rule of law still remains fundamental in thestate governance and concludes that the West Bengal experiencedemonstrates that while democracy may widen through the mass entry ofworkers, peasants and the rural and urban poor, and though this mayfacilitate long-denied political justice for them, this does notensure social justice per se. Volume II: Justice and Law: The Limitsof the Deliverables of Law is edited by Ashok Agrwaal, Lawyer,researcher and civil rights activist and Bharat Bhushan, Editor of theDaily Mail Newspaper . This second volume of the series The State ofJustice in India: Issues of Social Justice brings together the tensionthat brews between law and justice in India. It begins with how ourlegislators had engaged in the discourse on justice at the time of themaking of the constitution. The articles highlight the way law hascreated dichotomies in its attempt to be the guardian for justice. Theauthors have coined the idea of 'justice gap', which unveils the gapbetween the claims for justice and governmental regime of justice.Justice and Law: The Limits of the Deliverables of Law also dealsextensively with the issue of reservation. It has one articledocumenting the history of reservations in India, in the background ofpolitical contentions, elections, and judicial activism. The otherarticle traces how the 'policy game' goes on in the language of courtsand law. Both the articles indicate how the issue of justice isclosely linked to the issue of expansion of democracy. Another articlemeasures the success of the legal system in providing justice to thosein the margins. This one-of-its-kind book will be an invaluableresource for academics and researchers studying sociology, law, socialjustice, political theory and Indian democracy. It will also be usefulfor human rights activists, policy makers, policy analysts and NGOs.Volume III: Marginalities and Justice is edited by Paula Banerjee,Head of the Department of South and South East Asian Studies,University of Calcutta, Kolkata and Mahanirban Calcutta ResearchGroup, Kolkata and Sanjay Chaturvedi, Professor of Political Scienceat the Centre for the Study of Geopolitics and Honorary Director,Centre for the Study of Mid-West and Central Asia, Panjab University,Chandigarh. This third volume of the series The State of Justice inIndia: Issues of Social Justice shows how marginalities in socialspaces marked by power raise the issue of justice. It deals with thesituation of people living in the margins of the society and theirrelationship with communities that enjoy enough material well being tosecure their rights. It reveals how effective governanceunintentionally uses strategies of inclusion, exclusion, differentialexclusion, and, most importantly, techniques of turning spaces into'marginal enclaves', giving rise to injustice, and thereby, the demandfor justice. Marginalities and Justice demonstrates that justice mayemanate from the dynamics of marginality. The same governmentaltechniques that to some extent address issues of social justice, mayproduce marginal positions too. Thus, this collection suggests theexistence of a remainder; it demonstrates what remains outside theoperations of governmentality and explores the arrangement of socialspaces. Volume IV: Key Texts on Social Justice in India is edited bySanam Roohi, Programme Associate, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group,Kolkata and Ranabir Samaddar, Director, Mahanirban Calcutta ResearchGroup, Kolkata. This fourth volume of the series The State of Justicein India: Issues of Social Justice is a compendium of key texts onsocial justice. It brings out the relational nature of justice as wellas the fragmented nature of its existence. Key Texts on Social Justicein India explores how law fares in delivering justice, how violencebecomes an essential part of the popular notion of justice and how thedynamics of justice is linked with the emergence of marginalsituations. Each article is, on one hand, an appeal for justice, and,on the other, a manifesto that state actions fall short of ensuringjustice. This compilation is meant for the students and researchersworking in the fields of justice, sociology and law. It will serve assupplementary text in law as well as a source book that gives acomprehensive analysis of justice in the Indian scenario.

Table of contents

VOLUME I: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ENLIGHTENMENT:

WEST BENGAL - Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das

Series Acknowledgement -

Ranabir Samaddar Series Introduction -

Ranabir Samaddar Introduction -

Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das Land Acquisition Act and SocialJustice: A Study on Development and Displacement -

Ratan Khasnabis Two Leaves and a Bud: Tea and Social Justice inDarjeeling -

Contains lectures that make an impassioned plea for social justice forIndia's poor millions who the author says have been denied socialjustice by the three great wings of the government the Executive, theJudiciary and the Parliament.

Full description

Justice Krishna Iyer is a great proponent of social justice. In theselectures he makes an impassioned plea for social justice for India'spoor millions who he says have been denied social justice by the threegreat wings of the government the Executive, the Judiciary and theParliament. A prolific writer, Justice Krishna Iyer is known for hishard hitting but eloquent lectures and writings. First published underthe title, Some Half Hidden Aspects of Indian Social Justice , thebook was sold out within a very short period of time. It has now beenenlarged and two new chapters have been added. The Bhopal Gas Tragedycase has been given wide treatment, as also other current issues.

Social exclusion and inclusion are issues of fundamental importance todemocracy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines atthe multidimensional problems of social exclusion and inclusion, andthe long-term issues facing contemporary Indian democracy.

This volume brings together a selection of readings on movementsrelated to religion and caste, as well as regionalism, and linguisticand tribal movements in India, examining them with respect to theconstruction and perception of identity.

Full description

In the ongoing process of social transformation, new identities areoften constructed, while existing identities may mutate or transform,and some might even be rendered obsolete. Social Movements I: Issuesof Identity, part of the Oxford in India Readings in Sociology andSocial Anthropology (OIRSSA) series, examines the phenomenon of socialmovements in India with respect to the construction and perception ofidentity. It brings together a selection of readings on movementsrelated to religion and caste, as well as regionalism, and linguisticand tribal movements in India. It specifically addresses (a) theabbreviation and even abrogation of identities versus elaboration ofidentities; (b) the tensions between group identity and individualequality believed to be pulling in opposite directions; (c) identityas the basis of inclusion and exclusion of citizens in theparticipatory processes in the polity and economy; and (d) perceivingidentity of minorities as a source of threat for the nation and thestate by the dominant majority, as against invoking identity as theroute to justice by the weak/dominated minorities. These issues arerelevant in situating identitarian movements in the wider context.This reader will be useful for students and scholars of sociology,anthropology, social history, Indian politics, and those studyingIndian society and social movements in particular.

Table of contents

PREFACE, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;

GENERAL INTRODUCTION: ON THE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (T.K.OOMMEN);

SECTION I - RELIGIOUS AND CASTE MOVEMENTS;

INTRODUCTION TO SECTION I;;

1. Socio-religious Movements of the Twentieth Century (Kenneth W.Jones);;

2. Ethno-religious Mobilization and the Politics of Secularism(Christophe Jaffrelot);;

3. Caste and Conversion Movements (Walter Fernandes);;

4. Different Shades of Dalit Mobilization (Vivek Kumar);;

5. The Tabhlighi Jama'at: The Making of a Transnational ReligiousMovement (Shail Mayaram);;

SECTION II - REGIONAL, LINGUISTIC AND TRIBAL MOVEMENTS;

INTRODUCTION TO SECTION II;;

6. Foundations of the Dravidian Movement (Robert L. Hardgrave);;

7. The Shiv Sena Movement (Dipankar Gupta);;

8. The Assam Movement (Sanjib Baruah);;

9. Tribal Solidarity Movements in India (Surajit Sinha);;

10. Christian Conversion Movements in the North East (Frederick S.Downs); Notes on Contributors

This reader brings together a selection of writings on peasant andlabour movements; women and students youth movements; and ecologicaland environmental movements. It discusses contemporary socialmovements in India from the perspective of equity and security.

Full description

Inequity manifests in different forms in different contexts - it couldbased on income disparity, gender, and class, and impact differentaspects of society. Social Movements II: Concerns of Equity andSecurity, part of the Oxford in India Readings in Sociology and SocialAnthropology (OIRSSA) series, examines the phenomenon of socialmovements in India with respect to the concerns of equity and securityas two forces behind contemporary social movements. The issue ofequity is concerned not only with income and class but is also relatedto ideas of development and distributive justice for peasantry andlabour. It is also the focus of groups such as women and the youth,which occasion protests and mobilizations. Moreover, in the currentscenario, booming economies, soaring populations, and choices ofdevelopment strategies have a bearing on the rise of social movementsrelated to ecology and the environment. This reader brings together aselection of essays that explore the various dimensions of equity, andalso covers issues of environmental and ecological security. These areimperative in situating related social movements in the wider context.This reader will be useful for students and scholars of sociology,anthropology, social history, Indian politics, and those studyingIndian society and social movements in particular.

Offers an important reinterpretation of major themes of sovereignty,authority and social reform in colonial South Asian history. Focusingon the British prohibition of sati in 1829, this book shows how thedebates that preceded this legislation have been instrumental insetting the terms of post-colonial debates about sati.

Full description

This book offers an important reinterpretation of major themes ofsovereignty, authority and social reform in colonial South Asianhistory. Focusing on the British prohibition of sati in 1829, theauthor shows how the debates that preceded this legislation have beeninstrumental in setting the terms of post-colonial debates about sati,as well as of defining the terms and parameters of British involvementin Indian social and religious issues more generally.

Andrea Major is Lecturer in Wider World History at the University ofLeeds. Her research interests relate to the nature of the colonialencounter between Britain and India, and in particular theirinteraction on social and gender issues.

Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects:Islam, Rights, and the History of KashmirMridu Rai

Paper | 2004 | $28.95320 pp. | 5 x 8

Paper $20.00

Full Text of this book, thanks to the Google.http://books.google.com/books/princeton?hl=en&q=Hindu+Rulers%2C+Muslim+Subjects%3A&vid=ISBN9780691116884&btnG.x=15&btnG.y=10#v=snippet&q=Hindu%20Rulers%2C%20Muslim%20Subjects%3A&f=false

Disputed between India and Pakistan, Kashmir contains a large majorityof Muslims subject to the laws of a predominantly Hindu andincreasingly "Hinduized" India. How did religion and politics becomeso enmeshed in defining the protest of Kashmir's Muslims against Hindurule? This book reaches beyond standard accounts that look to the 1947partition of India for an explanation. Examining the 100-year periodbefore that landmark event, during which Kashmir was ruled by HinduDogra kings under the aegis of the British, Mridu Rai highlights thecollusion that shaped a decisively Hindu sovereignty over a subjectMuslim populace. Focusing on authority, sovereignty, legitimacy, andcommunity rights, she explains how Kashmir's modern Muslim identityemerged.

Rai shows how the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was formed asthe East India Company marched into India beginning in the lateeighteenth century. After the 1857 rebellion, outright annexation wasabandoned as the British Crown took over and princes were incorporatedinto the imperial framework as junior partners. But, Rai argues,scholarship on other regions of India has led to misconceptions aboutcolonialism, not least that a "hollowing of the crown" occurredthroughout as Brahman came to dominate over King. In Kashmir the Dograkings maintained firm control. They rode roughshod over the interestsof the vast majority of their Kashmiri Muslim subjects, planting theseeds of a political movement that remains in thrall to a religiositythrust upon it for the past 150 years.

Review:

"Rai's contribution lies in the extremely thorough and painstakingdocumentation that she provides when tracing the marginalization ofthe native inhabitants of Kahmir, the chicanery of the British, andthe fecklessness of the Dogra rulers. Her account of the growth ofMuslim religio-political consciousness in the early part of thetwentieth century . . . unearths a wealth of detail. . . . Rai's bookis a useful one. Those interested in understanding the background ofthe continuing tragedy in Kahmir will find much to consider in hersubstantial account of the historical backdrop."--Sumit Ganguly,Journal of Asian Studies

Endorsements:

"Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects is a brilliant work of historicalscholarship that will become indispensable reading for all thoseinterested in the modern history and politics of the subcontinent. Ita pioneering historical study of rights, religion, and regionalidentity in Kashmir that could also inspire future studies on otherregions of the subcontinent."--Sugata Bose, Harvard University

"This is a major contribution to Kashmir studies and should set thestandard for the next generation of publications on Kashmir.Challenging the existing literature, this work is heady and fresh--anddeserves attention."--Alexander Evans, King's College London and theRoyal Institute of International Affairs

"Mridu Rai's book reminds us powerfully of the crucial importance ofcolonial history to the present. She is able to de-essentializereligion and secularism in the Kashmir conflict, which is very usefulin light of India's secularist claims and the ways in which somesociologists have theorized those claims. Carefully researched andlucidly conceptualized and written, this book forwards an importantthesis on an important topic."--Peter van der Veer, University ofAmsterdam

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements xAbbreviations xiiIntroduction 1

CHAPTER 1: Territorializing Sovereignity: The Dilemmas of Control andCollaboration 18

CHAPTER 2: The Consolidation of Dogra Legitimacy in Kashmir: HinduRulers and a Hindu State 80

Ever since the India-Pakistan near war of 2001–2002, we have beensubject to an incessant flow of words on the Kashmir conflict. Sadly,this deluge has done little to enhance our knowledge of the subject.Bar changing the odd adjectives, adding a little detail, or insertingthe views of the proverbial man on the street, little has been addedto Sumit Ganguly's Crisis in Kashmir: Portents of War, Prospects ofPeace (1997) or Victoria Schofield's Kashmir in Conflict: India,Pakistan, and the Unending War (2000). Two new histories have beenwidely applauded for constituting a happy break with this dismaltradition. Little attention has been paid, however, to theconsiderable theoretical and empirical problems presented by MriduRai's and Chitralekha Zutshi's books. 1Both Rai and Zutshi deal with a critical period in the historyof Jammu and Kashmir: the century of Dogra monarchical rule thatpreceded the independence of India and Pakistan, and the division ofthe state between the two powers in the course of the war of 1947. Itwas in this period that the welter of territories that constitutemodern Kashmir were welded together under a single power, aconsequence of Britain's handing over of the region to Maharaja GulabSingh, a prince who sided with the empire's war of conquest againstthe Sikh kingdom of Lahore. Like the other semi-independent states ofprincely India, Kashmir witnessed a constant struggle for influencebetween the monarchy and the imperial government. It was to become thesite of a number of other contestations: of monarch against democrat;of empire against nationalist; of Hindu against Muslim; of peasantagainst landlord. 2Rai sees this century as one in which a "Hindu State" wasformed, the consequence of the Dogra monarchy's search for legitimacy.Lacking any real basis for its sovereignty over the peoples whosedestinies it now controlled, it responded by inventing a history inwhich the Dogra dynasty represented both the Hindu faith and Rajputmartial tradition. Rai maps this process by carefully documenting theDogra monarchy's growing control of Hindu religious practice inKashmir, notably through state-controlled trusts. Since the state wasHindu in character, Rai concludes, "religion and politics becameinextricably intertwined in defining and expressing the protest ofKashmiri Muslims against their rulers" (pp. 16–17). 3Zutshi arrives at similar conclusions, but with considerablymore attention to nuance and detail. Her study of the workings ofDogra rule suggests the need for a careful examination of what, ifany, meaning the notion of a "Hindu state" may have actually had tocontemporaries. There was, Zutshi's narrative suggests, no unilinearproject of Hinduization under the Dogras; rather, there were complexand fluid processes of collaboration and conflict among variouscategories of elites, both Hindu and Muslim. Kashmir's small Brahmincommunity, the Pandits, whom Rai sees as key collaborators of theDogra project, emerge at least one point in Zutshi's book as its mostbitter opponents. Notions of a homogeneous Kashmiri Muslim identity,Zutshi's analysis suggests, need to be tempered by an understanding ofthe working of caste, class, and ideology.

"Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects" covers the macro historical, social,religious, and political highlights in Kashmir from about 1840 to1950. It is a fascinating view into a world far distant but fearfullyclose as two modern nuclear armed adversaries seek domination over themystical lands of Kashmir. This is a book of essential preliminaryunderstandings to the current situation in the region and of thevolumes I have encountered is the best. I hope the author contemplatesanother book dealing with the post 1947 era. For those seeking recentpolitical happenings, I suggest "Kashmir" by Sumantra Bose.

excellent book!!! really worthwhile reading and very meticulousresearch on the impact of colonialism on kashmir. one of the few booksthat looks at the kashmiri conflict from the perspective of thekashmiris and not as a pawn in an india-pakistan chess match.

It is ironic that around the time we are celebrating 60 years ofIndia’s independence, the subject under discussion here is the Hindu-Muslim divide, instead of it being harmony between members ofdifferent communities in our free country. But one has to face thefacts and hence this discourse.

The author of the book under review, Dr Amrik Singh, starts it with apainful note: “As generally recognised, the Hindu-Muslim divide hasexisted in India for about thousand years. The partition of India intoIndia and Pakistan in 1947 was the latest instalment in thislongstanding dispute.” (p. 3) But soon he sounds a note of optimism:“But one thing is clear that, despite signals to the contrary, the twowarring communities are nearer an understanding with each other thanever before.” No convincing reason is provided for the optimisticnote, and the author goes further and adds that the situation islikely to change in about half a century or more (what a satisfyingthought!), even though it is stated: “In these matters, no one can beprecise.”

It is not very easy to agree with the author’s assertion about thethousand year old Hindu-Muslim divide. For, India is known for itscomposite culture, and quite a good part of the last thousand yearshave been known to be marked by considerable harmony with someaberrations. But aberrations are at times unavoidable and even theintra-community conflicts and divisive trends have been there in theconcerned groups. When the Pakistani leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,during the more fanatic phase of his political life (something theauthor makes a reference to) had talked about a thousand year war, hisbravado had the future in mind.

One would, in fact, like to go back to much older times, than the lastthousand years. It may be pointed out that composite culture had beenthe feature of India even before the beginning of the first centuryAD. The contributing influences all these years had been the teachingsof Gautam Buddha, the Vedic and Vedantic ideals of tolerance andspiritual values, the disarming qualities of the Sufi value and thenoble sentiments of the Bhakti movement, and, more recently, thethoughts of personalities like Swami Vivekananda, Maulana Azad, AltafHusain Hali and those believing in secular ideals among other factors.

While the commingling of Sufi and Bhakti ideals is an extremelycherished heritage of the past, the state of confrontation, in recenttimes, one has to admit, between the campaign of Tableegh and Shuddhi(mentioned by the author while stating the effort of Hinduism for‘semitisation’) (p. 132) is a tragic episode in our saga of compositeculture : like a bad dream one would perhaps like to forget.

EVEN without agreeing fully with the basic statement of the authorwith regard to a thousand year old divide one would like to praise himfor covering the subject of Hindu-Muslim divide in a verycomprehensive manner particularly in the recent past. Dr Amrik Singhhas covered the entire ground by recounting how the spirit of mutualunderstanding and conciliation gave way to conflict between theMuslims and Hindus. Much discussion is available about the factorsresponsible for this conflict leading to the partition of the countryalong with its independence, the roles of leaders of the twocommunities during those traumatic years and, indeed, the shape thisconflict has taken in today’s India.

The book is in the form of notes on different subjects relevant to itstheme, probably written at different points of time. But it contains awealth of information on the nature and cause of the divide—themachinations of the British rulers, the folly of partition, thepractice of separate electorates, and even the complexities of adultfranchise and a joint electorate, the polarisation between the twocommunities, the present concept of Hindutva and many other factorsthat the author has painstakingly gone into. The author has laid greatemphasis on the need for pluralism and for a policy “in the directionof reducing the Hindu-Muslim divide and work towards what has beendescribed as pluralism,” as he puts it.

Dr Amrik Singh has given some very perceptive opinions of acknowledgedexperts on Hinduism and Islam, some approvingly while others with hisnote of critique. Consider the quote from the eminent historian, Prof.M. Habib (whom he describes as the “tallest historian of medievalIndia”):

A Hindu feels it is his duty to dislike those whom he has been taughtto consider the enemies of his religion and his ancestors; the Muslim,lured into the false belief that he was once a member of a rulingrace, feels insufferably wronged by being relegated to the status of aminority community. Fools both! Even if the Muslims eight centuriesago were as bad as they were painted, would there be any sense inholding the present generation responsible for their deeds? It is butan imaginative tie that joins the modern Hindu with Harshvardhana orAsoka, or the modern Muslim with Shahabuddin or Mahmud.

“That these words were written several years after the partition makesthem even more relevant than they would have been otherwise,” says DrAmrik Singh and every rightly. (p. 200) Members of both thecommunities can gain from introspecting in the light of the latehistorians’ observation.

At another place, the author quotes Girilal Jain who, according tohim, “apart from being a leading journalist, was a keen student ofHinduism”: Unlike the Muslims, the Hindus do not possess a vision ofthe future, which is rooted in the past for a variety of reasons, oneof them being that, unlike the Muslims, they have not been able toinvent a golden age which can be located in any kind of history andthat they cannot invent one. While, they would, if challenged, vaguelyown up all Indian history up to the beginning of the Muslim invasionsof north India in the 11th century, they do not identify themselveswith any particular period. Indeed, they have little sense of history.So how can they have a golden age and how can a people without such asense engage in revivalism? What can they seek to revive? Hinduism isan arbitrary imposition on a highly variegated civilisation, which istruly oceanic in its range. Such a civilisation cannot be enclosed ina narrow doctrine. It cannot have a central doctrine because in itsmajestic sweep it takes up all that comes its way and adapts it to itsover-widening purpose, rejecting finally what is wholly alien andcannot be accommodated at all. Attempts have been made to buildembankments around this ocean-like reality to give it a shape anddefinition. But these have not succeeded. The spirit of India hasrefused to be contained. To put it differently, Hinduism has refusedto be organised. By the same token, it has refused to be communalised.(p. 135)

Amrik Singh reacts to Jain’s stipulations: “While it is true thatHinduism has refused to be organised and it has refused to becommunalised, how is it that today we witness what Nehru oncedescribed as ‘non-Muslim aggression among Muslims’?” The author saysthat this phrase of Nehru occurs in one of his letters addressed tothe Chief Ministers after the police action in Hyderabad.

IN the context of the Hindutva philosophy, it would be relevant toconsider the following quote from the late K.R. Malkani who becameknown as the Editor of the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, and an ideologueof the Bharatiya Janata Party:

The Muslim Indian should realise that Hinduism is not a religion, buta culture. That he is Muslim by religion but Hindu by culture. LetIndonesia with its Muslim religion and native Hindu culture be themodel for the Muslim in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. (p. 138)

Malkani’s prescription is not possible, says Amrik Singh, either interms of physical or political considerations or in terms of theirhistorical evolution. “While Hinduism has a hoary tradition behind it,the pre-Islamic traditions in Indonesia are not even clearly defined.”

Incidentally, at the time of writing this review a mammoth gatheringof Muslim men and women with hijab (about 100,000) including scholarsand religious leaders from different parts of the world, isdeliberating in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, in search of ways toestablish a single Muslim government in the Islamic world (on theideals of Khilafat-e-Islamia) largely at the initiative of a group ofIndonesian Muslims. But that is another story that needs to beconsidered in its own context.

The author feels that the effort to remove the present divide haslargely to be on the part of the Congress party. The removal of thedivide is linked with economic and political development of thecountry. He says, “The Congress—currently in power—owes it to theMuslims to bring them at par with others and thereafter involve themin the process of development, both economic and political. TheCongress also has the further obligation to help the Muslims to drawabreast of others socially.” (p. 191)

The author says that in seeking to separate from India, they (theMuslims) followed a path which culminated in the partition of India in1947. In the ultimate analysis that was a mistake, which Jinnah andthose who followed him had made. “Since the kind of Islamic futurethat the Muslims of the subcontinent had aspired for themselves isrunning into problem, sooner or later the thinking of the Muslim worldwill make them learn from experience and come to terms with thechanged reality. But when? It is difficult to answer this question,”the author says.

The author is of the view that the solution to the Hindu-Muslim divideis linked, to a great extent, with the normalisation of relationsbetween India and Pakistan. The problem in India cannot be isolatedfrom the problem in Pakistan. The triumph of fundamentalism will bebad for Indian Muslims as well. An end to confrontation would helpremove the divide in India, he says.

What, according to the author, is the prospect of the Hindu-Muslimdivide disappearing?—one may ask. He talks very enthusiastically of anIndian version of globalisation. This globalisation is the result of a“new mix of policies”, that are going to help all Indians includingMuslims.

He states: What has made it easier for India to adjust to the changingworld relatively more easily is partly because Hinduism is moreadjustable to the logic of the contemporary idea of development. IfIndia succeeds in this experiment, as seems to be happening, theIndian Muslims too can before long, become a part of this experiment.Currently, they are somewhat estranged from the mainstream. (p. 225)

Dr Amrik Singh would want the Indian Government to push aheadvigorously with the spread of education and the Indian Muslims to giveevidence of some “political initiative” and “political maturity”.

According to the author, the confrontation with the United States now“...is partly coming in the way of the Islamic world breaking with herpast”. If the US were not so confrontationist, he says, things in theIslamic world would to some extent start changing, “sooner than ishappening at the moment”. According to him, India’s role in thiscontext is “positive, if not also praiseworthy”. And, India’s versionof globalisation can prompt others, even those in the Islamic world,to move in that direction.

Dr Amrik Singh feels that if what is stated above happens, the “Hindu-Muslim divide in India will gradually weaken”. More than that, hesays, this would give rise to “a new era in world history in more thanone sense”. What happens in India, according to him, would be ofconsiderable historical significance. “Indeed, it can also prove to bea development of a wider economic and cultural significance.” Amen!

The reviewer, a veteran journalist who worked for several years inMainstream, currently edits the periodical Alpjan.

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article302.html

Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol XLVI No 28

Day One in CalcuttaMonday 30 June 2008, by From NC’s Writings

Ten years ago, in the afternoon of June 27, 1998, Nikhil Chakravarttybreathed his last. Remembering him after 10 years, we are reproducingsome of his finest reports, editorials and articles that appeared inthis journal and elsewhere over the last sixty years. We are alsoreproducing the speech that our former President, K.R. Narayanan,delivered while unveiling N.C.’s portrait at the Press Council ofIndia (New Delhi, February 28, 1999), and publishing severalreminiscences by those who knew him intimately.

The following report by Nikhil Chakravartty, the Calcuttacorrespondent of People’s Age (published from Bombay), appeared in theweekly’s August 24, 1947 issue (it was wired from Calcutta on August17, 1947) under the following headlines : ‘End of a Nightmare andBirth of New Dawn!’; ‘Calcutta Transformed by Spirit Of Independence’;‘Hindus, Muslims Hug Each Other In Wild Joy—Tears Roll Down WhereBlood Once Soaked The Streets’.

Frenzy has overtaken Calcutta. It is a frenzy which no city in Indiahas ever felt through the long years of thraldom under the British.

When the clock struck midnight and Union Jacks were hauled down onAugust 15, 1947, the city shook to her very foundations for a madfrenzy overtook her 40 lakh citizens. Nothing like this has everhappened before.

I have racked my brains for hours; I have looked up all despatches inthe Press; but still I find no adequate words to communicate theunforgettable experience that has overwhelmed me in the last threedays. It is like a sudden bursting of a mighty dam: you hear adeafening roar of water sweeping away everything in the flood. Itcomes with a crushing suddenness and strikes with the strength of athousand giants.

That is how all of us in Calcutta have felt in the last few days—allof us, old or young, man or woman, Hindu or Muslim, rich or poor. Inthis mighty sweep of the flood none was spared. And the floods carriedoff a lot of dirt and stigma of our slavery.

Calcutta is Reborn

ONE hundred and ninety years ago, it was from Calcutta that Clive setout of conquer this land of ours and it was this city which was theseat of all his vile intrigues that divided our ranks and broughtabout our defeat. But today in the sweeping torrent of freedom allthat has been wiped away, and once again this beloved city of oursstands out clean and full of radiance with the glow of lastingbrotherhood.

Everybody felt nervous about August 15. Weeks ahead authorities wereon tenterhooks; more police and military were being posted to ensurepeace. Ministers would not permit meetings in the open to celebratethe transfer of power, afraid that the goondas might create trouble.East Bengal Hindus were nervous that one little spark in Calcuttamight throw the entire province into the flames of a civil war;Muslims were panicky that they might be finished off in Calcutta andmany had left the city.

Gandhiji had already moved his camp to one of the most affected areas—Belliaghata—and cancelling his East Bengal trip, had decided to spenda few days here with Suhrawardy. But even he was disturbed by rowdygoondas, backed by communal groups, accusing him of being an enemy ofHindus. News from the Punjab was bad. On the whole an uncanny feargripped everybody and the day of independence seemed like a deadlinefor disturbances.

But how wrong were our calculations! With all our pretensions ofknowing our people, with all the prophecies and warnings, bans andprecautions, no one really knew how the people—common men and womenamong both Hindus and Muslims—would come forward to celebrate August15. It was this unknown factor, which in every turn of history is thedetermining factor, that has made all the difference in ourcalculations and the actual happenings on that day.

People’s preparations for the celebrations of the day went on briskly,though imperceptibly. The demand for Tri-colours knew no bounds;whatever be the material, whatever the make, every flag was literallysold out. Even the poorest of the poor, coolie, scavenger or rickshaw-puller, bought the Jhanda. In paras and mohallas boys and girls weregetting ready practising drills or formations, organising PrabhatPheris. Party differences, personal bickerings, etc. were forgotten.

Discordant voices there were, but they did not matter. Mahasabha firstraised the slogan of black flags, but then piped down and declared non-participation. But all the prestige of Shyamaprosad could not make anyimpression on the very people whom he had swayed during the Partitioncampaign.

Forward Bloc and Tagorites also opposed the celebration on the groundthat real freedom was yet to be won. But despite the fact thatthousands of Bengali homes paid homage to Netaji that day hardly ahandful abstained from participation. Every school, factory, office,every home—be it a mansion or a bustee—awaited the great day withhearts full of jubilation.

As the zero hour approached, the city put on a changed appearance. Onthe streets, people were busy putting up flags and decoratingfrontage. Gates were set up at important crossings, bearing names ofour past titans like Ashoka or our martyrs in the freedom movement.The atmosphere was tense; should there be a new round of stabbings orshootings among brothers, or should there be return to peace andnormalcy?

All Barriers Broken

THE first spontaneous initiative for fraternisation came from Muslimbustees and was immediately responded to by Hindu bustees. It wasCalcutta’s poor toilers, especially Muslims, who opened the floodgate,and none could have dreamt of what actually took place.

Muslim boys clambered up at Chowringhee and shouted, “Hindu-Muslim ekho” and exhorted the driver to take them to Bhowanipore. But thedriver would not risk that and so they came up to the border only.

But then all of a sudden in the very storm-centres of most gruesomerioting of the past year—Raja Bazar, Sealdah, Kalabagan, Colootolah,Burra Bazar—Muslims and Hindus ran across the frontiers and huggedeach other in wild joy. Tears rolled down where once blood had soakedthe pavements. “Jai Hind”, “Vande Mataram”, “Allah-ho-Akbar” and aboveall renting the sky “Hindu-Muslim ek ho”.

Curfews were ignored; men rushed out on the streets, danced, claspedand lifted each other up. It was all like a sudden end of a nightmare,the birth of a glorious dawn.

As midnight approached, crowds clustered round every radio set andJawaharlal’s ringing words sent a thrill round every audience,“Appointed day has come —the day appointed by destiny..”

With the stroke of midnight, conch-shells blew in thousands, conch-shells blown by our mothers and sisters from the innermost corners ofour homes—for the call of freedom has reached every nook and corner.And with the conch-shells were heard the crack of rifles and burstingof bombs and crackers. The very arms that were stored so long to killoff brothers were being used to herald the coming of freedom.

A torchlight procession started in North Calcutta. Tram workers, inall spontaneity, brought out a couple of trams crowded with Hindus tothe Nakhoda mosque and were feted by Muslims with food and drink. InBurra Bazar, Muslims were treated the same way and all embraced oneanother. Hardly anybody slept that night—the night choked withpassionate emotions welling up in so many ways.

As the morning came the city was already full of excitment andpavements were thronged with people. Prabhat Pheris came out singingsongs of the national struggle. Boys and girls marched through thestreets with bands and bugles—bright and smart, free citizens oftomorrow.

Flag salutations in every park, in every school and office. Busesplied free, giving joy rides to thousands. Trams announced that alltheir returns would be sent for relief. And they ran till late atnight along all mixed routes which were closed for the past year.

At the Government House, our own Government was to unfurl theTricolour, but invitees were confined to Burra Sahibs and officials,the rich and elite, Ministers and Legislators. They came in big cars,many with their wives dressed in all their fashionable clothes.

Government House—People’s Property

COMMON people, those that have made freedom possible, they too came inthousands, but they were kept outside, beyond the huge iron gates. Whymust this be so? Why must this occasion be celebrated in the way theWhite Sahibs have done so long?

I watched that crowd growing restless every minute and found amongthem the very faces that you come across in the streets every day orat the market or in your own home: babu, coolie, student, Professor,young girl and shy wife—all jostling with each other, impatient atbeing kept out. Sikh, Muslim, Bhayya and Bhadralok clamoured for thegates to be opened and when that was not done, they themselves burstinto the spacious grounds and ran up towards the Governor’s statelymansion.

The burst into the rooms much to the annoyance of the officials andperhaps also of the marble busts of many of the White rulers that havenever been disturbed in their majesty.

For hours they thronged there, thousands over thousands of them,shoving out many of the ICS bosses. But it would be a slander to saythat they were unruly. How little did they touch or damage? Had theybeen unruly, as somebody had reported to Gandhiji, the whole placewould have been a wreck in no time.

They went there for they felt that it was one of their own leaders whohad been installed as their Governor. And when the annoyed officialsran up to Rajaji to complain to him about the crowd swarming into therooms, C.R., it is reported, replied: “But what can I do? It is theirown property. How can I prevent them from seizing it?”

The sense of triumph, of pride that we have come to our own could beseen in the faces that entered the portals of the Government House. Itis symptomatic of August 15 no doubt. For though there wererestrictions and curtailments to real freedom in the elaborate plansthe Dominion Status, the people—the common humanity that teems our land—have taken this day to mean that that have won and no amount ofrestrictions will bar the way, just as no policeman could stop thesurging crowd that broke into the Government House.

Outside, all over the city, houses seemed to have emptied out into thestreets, lorries came in hundreds, each packed precariously beyondcapacity; lorries packed with Hindus and Muslims, men and women.Streets were blocked and the people themselves volunteered to controltraffic.

Somebody in Bhowanipore waved a League flag under a Tri-colour. What asight and what a suspense. But the days of hate were over and allshouted together, “Hindu-Muslim ek ho!”

A batch of Hindu ladies went to Park Circus to participate in the flaghoisting. They tied rakhi (strings of brotherly solidarity made famousduring Swadeshi days) round the wrists of Muslim National Guards. Andthe Muslim boys said, “May we be worthy brothers!”

Hindu families, quiet and timid Bhadralok families, came in hundredsto visit Park Circus with their wives and children in tikka gharriespiled by Muslims. Muslims, well-to-do and poor, visited Burra Bazar,and Ballygunge in endless streams. And this was going on all thesethree days.

They are all going to paras or mohallas they had to leave or wherethey had lost their near and dear ones. Today there is no area moreattractive and more crowded than the very spots where the worstbutcheries had taken place. As if to expiate for the sins of the lastone year, Hindus and Muslims of Calcutta vied with each other toconsecrate their city with a new creed of mighty brotherhood.

On the evening of August 16, one year back, I sent you a despatchwhich could describe but inadequately the mad lust for fratricidalblood that had overtaken Calcutta that day. To mark the anniversary ofthat day I visited the crowded parts of Hindu Burra Bazar and theMuslim Colootola where in this one year hardly anyone passed alivewhen spotted by the opposite community. But this evening Muslims werethe guests of honour at Burra Bazar and Hindus, as they visitedColootola, were drenched with rose-water and attar and greeted withlusty cheers of “Jai Hind”.

On the very evening, at Park Circus, was held a huge meeting of Hindusand Muslims. Suhrawardy, J.C. Gupta, MLA, and Bhowani Sen spoke. Itwas here that Suhrawardy asked the Muslims to go and implore theevicted Hindus to come back to Park Circus.

At Belliaghata, Gandhiji’s presence itself has brought back hundredsof Muslim families who had to leave in terror of their lives only afew weeks back. And Gandhiji’s prayer meetings are attended by an everincreasing concourse of Hindus and Muslims—themselves living symbolsof Hindu-Muslim unity.

Reports from Bengal districts also prove that this remarkable upsurgeof solidarity was not confined to Calcutta alone. In Dacca, despitepanic, Hindus and Muslims jointly participated in the celebration ofPakistan, and Muslim leaders themselves intervened in one case wherethe Congress flag was lowered, and the flag was raised again.

Everywhere Hindus showed response by honouring the Pakistan flag.Joint Hindu-Muslim demonstrations were the marked features of theoccasion.

Reports from Comilla, Kusthia, Dinajpore, Krishnanagore, Munshinganj,Malda and Jessore, all show that August 15 had passed off in peace andamity. Only local fracas were reported from Kanchrapara, but the greatand good tidings from Calcutta eased the situation there.

In this mighty flood of freedom and brotherhood there is yet the senseof suspense, for it came with such an incredible suddenness andmagnitude that many think it is too good to last long. It is likeholding a precious glass dome in your hands while you are in suspensethat it might fall and break at any moment.

Spontaneous assertion of people’s will for freedom and brotherlysolidarity needs to be harnessed in lasting forms and that is whereour leaders will be tested in the coming weeks.

Whatever happens, August 15 will be cherished for Calcutta’s grandcelebration on the eve of the end of the dark night of slavery and thedawn of freedom. Calcutta yesterday was the symbol of our servitudeand fratricidal hate. Calcutta today is the beacon-light for freeIndia, asserting that freedom once resurrected can never be curbed ordestroyed, for all our millions of Hindus and Muslims together areready to stand together as its proud sentinels.

(People’s Age, August 24, 1947)

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article801.html

Mainstream Weekly

VOL XLV No 21

1857 In Our HistoryMonday 14 May 2007, by P C Joshi *

[(The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Great Indian Revoltof 1857 is being observed this month. Though the spark for the Revoltwas lit by Mangal Pandey at Barrackpore earlier the same year, theRevolt actually began in May at Meerut: on May 6, 85 sepoys of the 3rdBengal Cavalry at Meerut refused to use the cartridge, the cause ofthe rebellion—all of them were placed under arrest; on May 9 thesesepoys were brought to a general punishment parade at the MeerutParade Ground, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and stripped oftheir uniforms. When the 11th and 12th Native Cavalry of the BengalArmy assembled at the Parade Ground on May 10, they broke rank andturned on the Commanding Officer Colonel Finnis who was shot dead—thiswas the first incident of Revolt at Meerut; thereafter the sepoysliberated the imprisoned sepoys, attacked the European Cantonment andkilled all the Europeans who could be found there. Then in conjunctionwith the Roorkee sepoys, called to Meerut following the uprising, theymarched to Delhi where the first major incident took place on May 11with the killing of Colonel Ripley.

We are carrying here excerpts from a seminal article “1857 In OurHistory” by the former General Secretary of the Communist Party ofIndia, P.C. Joshi, whose birth centenary is being observed this year,to mark the occasion. This article was presented at a symposium heldto observe the centenary of the 1857 Revolt in 1957; later it waspublished alongwith other articles presented at the symposium in bookform (also edited by P.C. Joshi) by the People’s Publishing House, NewDelhi. —Editor)]

The few contemporary Indians who wrote on 1857 did so for the British.The dominant British attitude is revealed in entitled, “The BengaliPress, How to Deal with It”, published on August 9, 1896, in Pioneer,a very influential British organ of the times:

We know how Englishmen within the memory of living men treated theirown newspaper writers… If a gentle and graceful writer forgot himselfso far as to call the Prince Regent ‘an Adonis of forty’ he got twoyears’ ‘hard’. If a clergyman praised the French Revolution andadvocated Parliamentary reform and fair representation, he wascondemned to work in iron manacles, to wade in sludge among the vilestcriminals.

The writer advocated the infliction of the same punishment on anIndian who dared to write on the Indian Mutiny of 1857.1

Indians thus had no say in this controversy but our rebel ancestorswith their heroic deeds and by shedding their warm blood had madetheir contribution more eloquent than words....

It is inspiring to recall here what Marx thought of the 1857 nationaluprising. As early as July 31, 1857, on the basis of Indian mailcarrying Delhi news up to June 17, he concluded his unsignednewsletter to the New York Daily Tribune with these words:

By and by there will ooze out other facts able to convince even JohnBull himself that what he considers military mutiny is in truth anational revolt.2

India’s historians may go on arguing and differing about the characterof the 1857 revolt but the mass of the Indian people have alreadyaccepted it as the source-spring of our national movement. The hold ofthe 1857 heritage on national thought is so great that even Dr R. C.Majumdar concludes his study with the following words:

The outbreak of 1857 would surely go down in history as the firstgreat and direct challenge to the British rule in India, on anextensive scale. As such it inspired the genuine national movement forthe freedom of India from British yoke which started half a centurylater. The memory of 1857-58 sustained the later movement, infusedcourage into the hearts of its fighters, furnished a historical basisfor the grim struggle, and gave it a moral stimulus, the value ofwhich it is impossible to exaggerate. The memory of the revolt of1857, distorted but hallowed with sanctity, perhaps did more damage tothe cause of the British rule in India than the Revolt itself.3

The controversy whether the 1857-58 struggle was a sepoy revolt or anational uprising can be resolved only by squarely posing andtruthfully analysing the character of the contestants on either sideand the nature of the issues—political, economic and ideological—involved in this struggle. In short, a sound historical evaluationdemands that who was fighting whom and for what be correctlystated....

THE British conquest of India implied not only the imposition of alienrule but, something worse still, a pitiless destruction of thetraditional Indian social order itself and disruption of its ownnormal development towards a new order. Marx was the only thinker ofthe period who studied this tragic phenomenon scientifically andformulated the role of British imperialism in India in such a correctmanner that his conclusions were borne out by the subsequentresearches of Indian scholarship and they helped Indian patriots tounderstand Indian reality better and give a progressive orientation toIndian national thought.

As early as 1853 when the Indian situation was being debated in theBritish Parliament on the occasion of the renewal of the East IndiaCompany’s Charter, Marx stated in an article entitled “British Rule inIndia”: All the civil wars, invasions, revolutions, conquests,famines, strangely complex, rapid and destructive as the successiveaction in Hindustan may appear, did not go deeper than its surface.England has broken down the entire framework of Indian society,without any symptoms of reconstitution yet appearing. This loss of hisold world, with no gain of a new one, imparts a particular kind ofmelancholy to the present misery of the Hindu, and separates Hindustanruled by Britain, from all its ancient traditions, and from the wholeof its past history… It was the British intruder who broke up theIndian handloom and destroyed the spinning wheel…British steam andscience uprooted over the whole surface of Hindustan, the unionbetween agriculture and manufacturing industry.4 ...

After the conquest of Bengal and eventually throughout India, themethod of enforced and unequal trade was used to loot India and thisled to its economic ruination. R. P. Dutt states how the situationunderwent a qualitative change after the British became the rulingclass in India, how methods of power could be increasingly used toweight the balance of exchange and secure the maximum goods for theminimum payment.5

By the end of 18th century and much more clearly by 1813-33, a shifthad come over British policy towards India. After a period ofprimitive plunder and the systematic ruination of Indian trades andcrafts, the British bourgeoisie, with the completion of theirIndustrial Revolution, began to use India as a dumping ground for itsindustrial manufactures and, above all, textiles. Marx noted thissharp shift, and, in one of his articles during 1853, wrote:

The whole character of trade was changed. Till 1813 India had beenchiefly an exporting country while it now became an importing one; andin such quick progression, that already, in 1823, the rate ofexchange, which had generally been two-sixth per rupee sunk down totwo per rupee. India, the great workshop of cotton manufacture for theworld, since immemorial times, became now inundated with Englishtwists and cotton stuffs. After its own produce had been excluded fromEngland, or only accepted on the most cruel terms, Britishmanufactures were poured into it at a small or merely nominal duty, tothe ruin of native cotton fabric once so celebrated.6

The policy of the East India Company also annihilated the independentmerchant bourgeoisie as well as the artisans and craftsmen. ProfRamkrishna Mukherjee describes the process in the following words:

Along with thus turning the Indian artisans ‘out of this ‘temporal’world’, as Marx remarked caustically, proceeded the liquidation of theIndian merchant bourgeoisie. Monopolising Indian products for theEnglish meant that the Indian merchants could no longer survive. Onlythose could maintain their profession who acquiesced in becomingunderlings of the Company or of its servants engaged in private inlandtrade in India or of the private English merchants residing in Indiafor the same purpose. Otherwise, they had to find a new source oflivelihood. Not only were the Indian merchants prohibited from buyingcommodities directly from the producers which were monopolised by theEnglish, but the agents of the Company and its servants forced suchgoods on the Indian merchants at a price higher than the prevailingone.7

By annihilating the independent merchant bourgeoisie, which to someextent also fulfilled the role of the manufacturing bourgeoisie, themonopolist East India Company destroyed that very important class inIndian economy which could be their rival.

Another aspect of this phenomenon is noted and analysed by K. M.Panikkar in the following words:

With the establishment of European trade centres in the main coastalareas of India, there had developed a powerful Indian capitalistclass, closely associated with the foreign merchants, and derivinggreat profits from trade with them… The Marwari millionaires of Bengalhave become the equivalent of the compradore classes of Shanghai of alater period …The emergence of this powerful class, whose economicinterests were bound up with those of the foreign merchants and whohad an inherited hatred of Muslim rule, was a factor of fundamentalimportance to the history of India and of Asia.8

These Indian agents of the Company and of the British merchants werecalled gomasthas and bannias and played the role of sub-agents offoreign capital and a pro-British role in the 1857 uprising.

How did intelligent Indians react to the above economic situation andpolicies?

It is useful to quote Allamah Fazle Haq of Khayrabad, an eminentMuslim scholar of the traditional school who took a leading part inthe 1857 revolt and was transported for life:

Having seized power they (the British) decided to bring under theirhold the various sections of the people by controlling eatables, bytaking possession of the ears of corn and grain and giving thepeasants and cultivators cash in lieu of their rights of farming.Their object was not to allow the poor men and villagers a free handin buying and selling grains. By giving preference to their ownpeople, they wanted to control the cheapening or raising of the ratesso that the people of God might submit to their (Christian) policy ofmonopoly, and their dependence on them (Christians) for theirrequirements might force them to meet the purpose of the Christiansand their supporters, and their desire and ambitions which they had intheir hearts and the mischiefs and evils which they had concealed intheir minds.9

In the above background, the appeal of the manifesto issued by BahadurShah on behalf of the insurgent centre at Delhi had its ownsignificance. The manifesto appealed in the following words to themerchants: It is plain that the infidel and treacherous BritishGovernment have monopolised the trade of all the fine and valuablemerchandise such as indigo, cloth and other articles of shipping,leaving only the trade of trifles to the people and even in this theyare not allowed their shares of the profits, which they secure bymeans of customs and stamp fees, etc., in money suits, so that thepeople have merely a trade in name. Besides this, the profit of thetraders are taxed with postages, tolls, and subscriptions for schools,etc. Notwithstanding all these concessions, the merchants are liableto imprisonment and disgrace at the instance of complaint of aworthless man. When the Badshahi Government is established all theseaforesaid fraudulent practices shall be dispensed with and the tradeof every article, without exception, both by land and water shall beopened to the native merchants of India who will have the benefit ofthe Government steam-vessels and steam carriages for the conveyance oftheir merchandise gratis; and merchants having no capital of their ownshall be assisted from the public treasury. It is, therefore, the dutyof every merchant to take part in the war, and aid the BadshahiGovernment with its men and money, either secretly or openly, as maybe consistent with its position or interest and forswear itsallegiance to the British Government.10...

The economic and political operation of the East India Company inIndia led to a systematic squeezing of our national wealth which hasbeen described by India’s economic historians as the economic drain.Let us examine this as it existed on the eve of the 1857 revolt.

There was the so-called Indian Debt, which was incurred by the Companyin order to consolidate its position in India and to spread itsinfluence further through expeditions and wars, and at the same time,paying high dividends to share-holders in England, tributes to theBritish Government since 1769 and bribes to the influential persons inEngland.11

R. C. Dutt makes the following comments as regards the genesis andmechanism of this Indian Debt:

A very popular error prevails in this country (England in 1903) thatthe whole Indian Debt represents British capital sunk in thedevelopment of India. It is shown in the body of this volume that thisis not the genesis of the Public Debt of India. When the East IndiaCompany cessed to be the rulers of India in 1858, they had piled up anIndian Debt of 70 millions. They had in the meantime drawn a tributefrom India, financially an unjust tribute, exceeding 150 million, notcalculating interest. They had also charged India with the cost ofAfghan wars, Chinese wars and other wars outside India. Equitably,therefore, India owed nothing at the close of the Company’s rule; herPublic Debt was a myth; there was a considerable balance of over 108millions in her favour out of the money that had been drawn from her.12

Montgomery Martin, an Englishman with sympathy for the Indian people,wrote as early as 1838:

This annual drain of £ 3,000,000 on British India amounted in 30 yearsat 12 per cent (the usual Indian rate) compound interest to theenormous sum of £ 723,997,917 sterling; or, at a low rate, as $2,000,000 for 50 years, to £ 8,400,000,000 sterling! So constant andaccumulating a drain even on England would have soon impoverished her;how severe then must be its effect on India, where the wages of alabourer is from 2d. to 3d. a day?13....

Prof Ramkrishna Mukherjee goes even further and states:

A total picture of this tribute from India is seen to be even greaterthan the figure mentioned by Martin in 1838. During the 24 years ofthe last phase of the Company’s rule, from 1834-35 to 1857-58, eventhough the years 1855, ’56 and ’57 showed a total import-surplus of £6,436,345—(not because the foreign rulers had changed their policy,but because some British capital flowed into India to build railway inorder to prepare her for exploitation by British industrial capital),—the total tribute which was drained from India in the form of ‘homecharges’ and ‘excess of Indian exports’ amounted to the colossalfigure of £ 151,830,989. This works out at a yearly average of £6,325,875, or roughly half the annual land revenue collections in thisperiod!14

The above was the grim reality, grimmer than any ever witnessed in thewhole course of India’s age-old historic development. As Marx stated,there cannot, however, remain any doubt but the misery inflicted bythe British on Hindustan is of essentially different and infinitelymore intensive kind than Hindustan had to suffer before.15

The British, under the East India Company’s rule disrupted the wholeeconomic order of India, they turned the traditional land system topsyturvy, they smashed the trades and manufactures of the land anddisrupted the relationship between these two sectors of the Indianeconomy, systematically drained the wealth of our country to theirown, and destroyed the very springs of production of our economy.Every class of Indian society suffered at this new spoliator’s hands.The landlords were dispossessed and the peasants rendered paupers, themerchant bourgeoisie of India liquidated as an independent class andthe artisans and craftsmen deprived of their productive professions.Such unprecedented destruction of a whole economic order and of everyclass within it could not but produce a great social upheaval and thatwas the national uprising of 1857. The all-destructive British policyproduced a broad popular rebellion against its rule.

Within Indian society, however, those productive forces and classeshad not yet grown (in fact early British policy had itself destroyedtheir first off-shoots) that could lead this revolution to victory.The revolt of 1857 as also its failure were both historicalinevitabilities. But it also was a historical necessity, for after itfollowed those modern developments..., from which emerged the modernnational liberation movement of the Indian people and those new socialforces which led it to victory.

THE religious factor played a big part in the revolt in 1857. TheBritish statesmen and chroniclers exaggerated and deliberatelymisinterpreted the role played by this factor to prove their thesisthat the 1857 uprising was reactionary, revivalist and directedagainst the progressive reforms that they were introducing in Indiansociety. The early generation of English-educated Indian intellectualsswallowed this imperialist thesis uncritically because they themselveshad suffered under the old reactionary religious influences. A truehistorical outlook demands that we do not forget the historical stagewhich Indian society had reached on the eve of 1857, the ideologicalvalues which would be normal to this society and the ideological formsin which the Indian people could formulate their aspirations....

It is abundantly clear... that the British rulers purely for theirimperialist motives were out for some decades preceding 1857 toculturally denationalise India by the method of mass conversion toChristianity. This was seen as a menacing danger by the mass ofIndians, irrespective of their viewpoint whether it was Sir Syed AhmadKhan or Bahadur Shah, whether it was the enlightened Bengaliintellectual in Calcutta or the Nana Saheb at Bithoor, by the mass ofsepoys both Hindu and Muslim. Thus when the religious factor played abig role as it did in the struggle of 1857, it was as a part of thenational factor. The mass of Indians took up arms to defend their ownreligions and they were fighting not only in defence of their religionbut to defend their way of life and their nationhood. Of course, therewere several reactionary features within Indian society but then theonly healthy way to change them was through the struggle of the Indianpeople themselves.

This is not all. Our rebel ancestors used religion to advance therevolutionary struggle. They did not let religion stupefy them. Butthey used religion to get the strength to fight the Firinghis.

A proclamation was issued at Delhi with royal permission urging uponthe Hindus and Muslims to unite in the struggle in the name of theirrespective religions.

To all Hindus and Mussalmans, citizens and servants of Hindustan,officers of the army now at Delhi and at Meerut send greetings:—it iswell known that in these days all the English have entertained theseevil designs—first, to destroy the religion of the whole Hindustaniarmy and then to make the people by compulsion Christians. Therefore,we, solely on account of our religion, have combined with the peopleand have not spared alive one infidel, and have re-established theDelhi dynasty on these terms. Hundreds of guns and a large amount oftreasure have fallen into our hands; therefore, it is fitting thatwhoever of the soldiers and people dislike turning Christians shouldunite with one heart, and, acting courageously, not leave the seed ofthese infidels remaining.16

When the struggle in Oudh after the fall of Lucknow was on thedowngrade, and insurgents were heroically fighting defensive andmostly losing battles, the captured sepoys used to be asked by theBritish why they had joined the revolt. Their answer used to be:

The slaughter of the English is required by our religion. The end willbe the destruction of the English and all the sepoys—and then, Godknows!17

The Rajah of the Gond tribes was living as a pensioner of the Britishat Nagpur. He had turned a traditional Sanskrit sthotra recited inworshipping the devi into an anti-British hymn. The London Times ofOctober 31, 1857 gives the translation of the prayer: Shut the mouthof the slanderers and Eat up backbiters, trample down the sinners,You, “Satrusamgharika” (name of Devi, ‘destroyer of enemy’) Kill theBritish, exterminate them, Matchundee. Let not the enemy escape, notthe wives and children Of such oh! Samgharika Show favour to Shanker;support your slaves; Listen to the cry of religion. “Mathalka” eat upthe unclean, Make no delay, Now devour them, And that quickly, Ghor-Mathalka.

During the siege of Delhi, British agents repeatedly tried totransform the joint Hindu- Muslim struggle into a fratricidal Hindu-Muslim civil war. Even as early as May 1857, British agents beganinciting the Muslims against the Hindus in the name of jihad and thematter was brought before Bahadur Shah.

The king answered that such a jihad was quite impossible, and thatsuch an idea an act of extreme folly, for the majority of the Purbeahsoldiers were Hindus. Moreover, such an act could create internecinewar, and the result would be deplorable. It was fitting that sympathyshould exist among all classes… A deputation of Hindu officers arrivedto complain of the war against Hindus being preached. The kingreplied: ‘The holy war is against the English; I have forbidden itagainst the Hindus.’18

Thus did our rebel ancestors use religion to organise and conduct aunited revolutionary struggle against foreign domination. In thehistoric conditon of 1857, the ideological form of the struggle couldnot but assume religious forms. To expect anything else would beunrealistic and unscientific.

THE British text books on Indian history contained only the story ofthe “atrocities of the mutineers,”—dishonouring of women, killing ofchildren and so on. The reality, however, was the opposite. Again, theearly generation of educated Indians like Savarkar and others beganexposing from British sources themselves the story of unprecedentedBritish atrocities against the Indian people. During the non-cooperation movement of the twenties, the British terror during 1857was related to Jallianwallabagh to rouse the people to struggle morevaliantly and unitedly than our ancestors had done during 1857.Thereafter came Edward Thompson’s The Other Side of the Medal whichtried to put across the thesis that there were atrocities on bothsides which are best forgotten.

The question of questions is: can the two sides be put on the sameplane? Can the crimes committed by the enslavers of the people beequated with some mistakes and excesses committed by the fighters forfreedom? The two cases are different....

If tales of Indian “terror” are largely mythical, British brutalitygot even Lord Canning worried. On December 24, 1857, the followingMinute appears in the proceedings of the Governor-General-in-Council:

…the indiscriminate hanging, not only of persons of all shades ofguilt, but of those whose guilt was at the least very doubtful, andthe general burning and plunder of villages, whereby the innocent aswell as the guilty, without regard to age or sex, wereindiscriminately punished, and in some cases, sacrificed, had deeplyexasperated large communities not otherwise hostile to the government;that the cessation of agriculture and consequent famine wereimpending; …And lastly, that the proceedings of the officers of theGovernment had given colour to the rumour…that the Governmentmeditated a general bloody persecution of Mohammedans and Hindus.19...

In the History of the Siege of Delhi, written by an officer who servedon active service, it is graphically described what the Britishofficers did on the way from Ambala to Delhi.

Hundreds of Indians were condemned to be hanged before a court-martialin a short time, and they were most brutally and inhumanly tortured,while scaffolds were being erected for them. The hair on their headswere pulled by bunches, their bodies were pierced by bayonets and thenthey were made to do that to avoid which they would think nothing ofdeath or torture—cows’ flesh was forced by spears and bayonets intothe mouth of the poor and harmless Hindu villagers.20

How the sepoy and the civilian, the guilty and the innocent alike werebutchered by the British victors after the capture of Lucknow isdescribed below by one of them:

at the time of the capture of Lucknow—a season of indiscriminatemassacre—such distinction was not made and the unfortunate who fellinto the hands of our troops was made short work of—sepoy or Qudhvillager it mattered not—no questions were asked; his skin was black,and did not that suffice? A piece of rope and the branch of a tree ora rifle bullet through his brain soon terminated the poor devil’sexistence.21

What happened in the countryside, between Banaras, Allahabad andKanpur during General Neill’s march through the area is described byKaye and Malleson in the following words:

Volunteer hanging parties went out into the districts and amateurexecutioners were not wanting to the occasion. One gentleman boastedof the numbers he had finished off quite ‘in an artistic manner’, withmango trees for gibbets and elephants as drops, the victims of thiswild justice being strung up, as though for past-time in ‘the form ofa figure of 8’.22...

Pandit Nehru has rightly stated the problem of race mania as it facedour insurgent ancestors and faced us subsequently in the whole courseof our struggle for freedom.

We in India have known racialism in all its forms ever since thecommencement of British rule. The whole ideology of this rule was thatof the Herrenvolk and the master race, and the structure of Governmentwas based upon it; indeed the idea of a master race is inherent inimperialism. There was no subterfuge about it; it was proclaimed inunambiguous language by those in authority. More powerful than wordswas the practice that accompanied them, and generation aftergeneration and year after year, India as a nation and Indians asindividuals were subjected to insult, humiliation, and contemptuoustreatment.23...

Our forefathers suffered and bled during 1857. Subsequent generationskept up the struggle and went on making the needed sacrifice. If afterindependence we forget our past experience and began to considerBritish imperialism as our new friend instead of our traditional foe,we will not be able to safeguard Indian independence nor dischargeIndia’s duty towards the struggling colonial peoples in Asia andAfrica...

IN the broad historical perspective of India’s struggle againstBritish domination what needs being stressed is not the limitation andnarrowness of the 1857 uprising but its sweep, breadth and depth. The1857 uprising stands sharply demarcated from all the earlier anti-British wars of resistance fought on Indian soil.

The first is the sheer vastness of the area covered by the 1857uprising and the still wider sympathy and solidarity it commanded. Itis admitted by all historians and chronicles, British and Indianalike, that the 1857 national insurrection was the biggest ever anti-British combine that had so far been massed in armed struggle againstBritish authority in India.

The second is the qualitative difference between this and all otheranti-British wars. In the earlier wars people of a single kingdom,which very often coincided with a specific nationality, fought single-handed. For example, the Bengalis alone fought at Plassey. The same inthe Karnatak and the Mysore and the Maratha, the Sikh and the Sindwars. Earlier attempts at broader combinations had failed. But during1857 people of various castes, tribes, nationalities, religions, whohad lived under different kingdoms rose together to end the Britishrule. It was an unprecedented unity of the Indian people. Marx, themost far-sighted thinker of the age, duly noted this new phenomenon.

Before this there had been mutinies in the Indian army but the presentrevolt is distinguished by characteristic and fatal features. It isthe first time that the sepoy regiments have murdered their Europeanofficers; that Musalmans and Hindus, renouncing their mutualantipathies, have combined against the common masters; that‘disturbances, beginning with the Hindus, have actually ended inplacing on the throne of Delhi a Mohammedan Emperor’; that the mutinyhas not been confined to a few localities.24

As it is important to stress the above positive aspect of the 1857national uprising, it is equally important to state its negativeaspect and state which decisive areas and sections of the Indianpeople did not join the national uprising and how some were even ledto supporting the British side. There were several factors involvedbut let us examine the main, the national factor. The Gurkhas and theSikhs played a decisive role on the side of the British. The Nepal warhad been fought by the British with the help of the Hindustani Army.Rana Jung Bahadur, who was centralising Nepal under Ranashahi, waspromised by the British a permanent subsidy and large tracts in Teraiand he brought his Gurkha soldiers down, in the name of revenge, forsubduing Oudh.

The Sikhs had their own historic memories against the Moghuls andafter initial hesitation the British were able to recruit theunemployed soldiers of the Khalsa Army and the retainers of the Sikhprinces and sardars.

From the Marathas the heir of the Peshwas had risen in revolt but theMaratha princes had their own rivalries and historic feuds both withthe Nizam in the South and the Moghuls in the North.

The Rajputana princes had their own historic memories of earlierMoghul and later Maratha domination, besides their being under Britishgrip now.

These historic memories from the past of our feudal disunity kept thepeople of large parts of the country paralysed and moved by theirfeudal self-interest the Indian princes helped the British usurpers.Nehru has put the whole position in very succinct words:

The revolt strained British rule to the utmost and it was ultimatelysuppressed with Indian help.25

As it is true that the 1857 revolution was the biggest nationaluprising against British rule, so it is equally true that the Britishwere able to suppress it by using Indians against indians. Divide andrule was the traditional British policy and they used it withdevastating effect during 1857....

The peasant was anti-British but his outlook was confined within hisvillage, his political knowledge did not go beyond the affairs of thekingdom in which he lived under his traditional Raja.

The political-ideological leadership of the country was yet in thehands of the feudal ruling classes. They shared the general anti-British sentiment but they feared their feudal rivals more. They werea decaying class and their historic memories were only of the feudalpast of disunity and civil wars and the vision of a united independentIndia could not dawn upon them.

Love of the country in those days meant love of one’s own homelandruled by one’s traditional ruler. The conception of India as ourcommon country had not yet emerged. Not only did the feudal historicmemories come in the way but the material foundations for it, therailways, telegraph, a uniform system of modern education, etc., hadnot yet been laid but had only begun.

The conception of India as common motherland grew later and the greatexperience of 1857 rising helped it to grow. The London Times dulynoted the rise of this new phenomenon.

One of the great results that have flowed from the rebellion of1857-58 has been to make inhabitants of every part of India acquaintedwith each other. We have seen the tide of war rolling from Nepal tothe borders of Gujarat, from the deserts of Rajputana to the frontiersof the Nizam’s territories, the same men over-running the whole landof India and giving to their resistance, as it were, a nationalcharacter. The paltry interests of isolated States, the ignorancewhich men of one petty principality have laboured under in consideringthe habits and customs of the other principality—all this hasdisappeared to make way for a more uniform appreciation of publicevents throughout India. We may assume that in the rebellion of 1857,no national spirit was roused, but we cannot deny that our efforts toput it down have sown the seeds of a new plant and thus laid thefoundation for more energetic attempts on the part of the people inthe course of future years.26

WHAT was the aim of the insurgents, what sort of a political andsocial order did they seek to establish in India? A soundcharacterisation of the 1857 struggle depends upon the correct answerto the above problem. For it will help to decide whether it wasreactionary or progressive.

It is amazing that there is virtual agreement on this question betweennot only British and some eminent Indian historians but also someforemost Indian political leaders.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru has stated his opinion thus: Essentially itwas a feudal outburst, headed by feudal chiefs and their followers andaided by the widespread anti-British sentiment… Not by fighting for alost cause, the feudal order, would freedom come.27

Dr Majumdar’s conclusion is: The miseries and bloodshed of 1857-58were not the birthpangs of a freedom movement in India, but the dyinggroans of an obsolete aristocracy and centrifugal feudalism of themedieval age.28

Dr Sen, the official historian, improves upon and carries forward thePrime Minister’s characterisation:

The English Government had imperceptibly effected a social revolution.They had removed some of the disabilities of women, they had tried toestablish the equality of men in the eye of the law, they hadattempted to improve the lot of the peasant and the serf. The Mutinyleaders would have set the clock back, they would have done away withthe new reforms, with the new order, and gone back to the good olddays when a commoner could not expect equal justice with the noble,when the tenants were at the mercy of the talukdars, and when theftwas punished with mutilation. In short they wanted a counter-revolution.29...

One can understand British statesmen and historians advancing thethesis of the Old Man vs. the New, of their own role being progressiveand the insurgent cause reactionary, in sheer self-defence. But whenIndian leaders and historians repeat the same old British thesis theleast one can say is that they are mistaking the form for thesubstance. It is true that the 1857 uprising was led by Indian feudals(but not them alone!) and they were not the makers of events, nor solemasters of India’s destiny. There were other social forces of thecommon people in action during this struggle and they had brought newfactors and ideas into play. It is a pity Drs Majumdar and Sen andPandit Nehru have given no thought nor weight to them. If we studythem carefully and seriously, the conclusion is inescapable thatduring the 1857 national uprising, the popular forces were activeenough, healthy in their aspirations and clear-headed enough in theirideas to prevent a reactionary feudal restoration in India.

One of the great positive achievements of the 1857 uprising acclaimedwith justified pride by the Indian national movement has been thenoble attempt to forge, and sustained efforts to maintain, againstBritish machinations, Hindu-Muslim unity for the successful conduct ofthe struggle.

Playing upon Hindu-Muslim differences had become so much a part of theflesh and blood of the British representatives in India that LordCanning spontaneously began thinking, when the first signs of thestorm burst during May 1857, whether the Hindus or Muslims were behindit? Kaye states the problem and the significance of the new situationfacing the British rulers: But, before the end of the month of April,it must have been apparent to Lord Canning, that nothing was to behoped from that antagonism of Asiatic races which had even beenregarded as the main element of our strength and safety. Mohammedansand Hindus were plainly united against us.30

The British officials, however, did not give up but persisted in thepolicy of stirring Hindu- Muslim dissensions. “I shall watch for thedifferences of feelings between the two communities,” wrote Sir HenryLawrence from Lucknow to Lord Canning in May 1857. The communalantipathy, however, failed to develop; Aitchison ruefully admits:

In this instance, we could not play off the Mohammedaa against theHindu.31

The insurgent leaders were fully aware of this disruptive Britishtactic. Allamah Fazle Haq, himself a Muslim revivalist, wrote: They(the British) tried their utmost to break the revolutionary forces bytheir tricks and deceptive devices, make ineffective the power of theMujahids and uproot them, and scatter and disrupt them…. No stone wasleft unturned by them in this respect.32

The insurgent leaders consciously laid great stress on Hindu-Muslimunity for the success of the struggle. Bahadur Shah, the sepoyleaders, the learned Ulema and Shastris issued proclamations andfatwas stressing that Hindu-Muslim unity was the call of the hour andthe duty of all. In all areas liberated from British rule the firstthing the insurgent leaders did was to ban cow-slaughter and enforceit. In the highest political and military organ of insurgentleadership Hindus and Muslims were represented in equal numbers.33When Bahadur Shah found that he could not manage the affairs of state,he wrote to the Hindu Rajas of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Alwar that ifthey would combine for the purpose (of annihilating the British) hewould willingly resign the Imperial power into their hands.34

An insurgent Sikh regiment in Delhi served under a Muslim commander.35Such instances can be multiplied....

There is another very important aspect of this problem. Hindu-Muslimunity was one of the important keys in deciding the fate of the issue.The British side knew it and tried their hardest and best to disruptit. The Indian side also knew it and did their utmost to realise andmaintain it. But this by itself would be a static statement of theproblem. The better Hindu-Muslim unity was forged in the insurgentcamp, the longer the struggle could last; the longer the strugglelasted, the more chances the popular forces got to come to the foreand the more the ideological-political influence of feudal forcesbecame weakened; the more the feudal forces weakened the less chanceswere left of a feudal restoration. Such is the dialectics of allpopular and national struggles. During the last phase of the strugglein 1857-58, the feudal forces stood thoroughly exposed and weakened.The popular forces were not yet powerful, conscious and organisedenough to overwhelm them and carry on the struggle to victory. Whatactually took place was British victory and not feudal restoration.When the modern national movement began in the next generation, theglorious heritage of Hindu-Muslim unity was taken over from the 1857struggle and the next two generations gave a more and more democraticprogramme to the conception of Hindu-Muslim united front againstBritish domination.

The British side also learnt its lesson from this historic phenomenon.Forrest in his Introduction to State Papers, 1857-58, states:

Among the many lessons the Indian Mutiny conveys to the historian,none is of greater importance than the warning that it is possible tohave a revolution in which Brahmins and Sudras, Hindus and Mohammedanscould be united against us, and that it is not safe to suppose thatthe peace and stability of our dominions, in any great measure,depends on the continent being inhabited by different religioussystems…. The mutiny reminds us that our dominions rest on a thincrust ever likely to be rent by titanic forces of social changes andreligious revolutions.36...

Inside the disintegrating feudal order that was India of those days,new currents of democratic thought and practice were arising; theywere not yet powerful enough to break the old feudal ideological bondsand overwhelm British authority; they were menacing enough to make thereal Indian feudals seek a new lease of life as a gift from theBritish after beseeching due forgiveness for having joined theinsurgent cause.

The destruction of the ancient land system in India and the law on thealienation of land stirred the whole countryside into action againstthe government whose policies had made the old rural classes, from thezamindars to the peasants, lose their lands to the new section ofmerchants, moneylenders and the Company’s own officials, and which hadplayed havoc with the their life. The large-scale peasantparticipation in the 1857 uprising gave it a solid mass basis and thecharacter of a popular revolt. The Indian peasants fulfilled theirpatriotic duty during 1857.

Peasants joined as volunteers with the insurgent forces and, thoughwithout military training, fought so heroically and well as to drawtributes from the British themselves... At the battle of Miaganj,between Lucknow and Kanpur, the British had to face an Indianinsurgent forces of 8000, of whom not more than a thousand were sepoys.37 At Sultanpur, another battle was fought by the insurgents with25,000 soldiers, 1,100 cavalry and 25 guns and of these only fivethousand were rebel sepoys!38 After the fall of Delhi, the Britishconcentrated upon Lucknow. As the British massed all their strengthagainst Lucknow so from the villagers of Oudh came armed, peasantvolunteers for the last ditch defence of their capital city. In thewords of Charles Ball, The whole country was swarming with armedvagabonds hastening to Lucknow to meet their common doom and die inthe last grand struggle with the Firangis.39

After the fall of Bareilly and Lucknow, the insurgents fought on andadopted guerilla tactics. Its pattern is contained in Khan BahadurKhan‘s General Order:

Do not attempt to meet the regular columns of the infidels becausethey are superior to you in discipline, bandobast and have big gunsbut watch their movements, guard all the ghats on the rivers,intercept their communications, stop their supplies, cut their dak andposts and keep constantly hanging about their camps, give them (theFiringhis) no rest!40

Commenting on the above, Russell wrote in his Diary:

This general order bears marks of sagacity and points out the mostformidable war we would encounter.41

The heavy responsibility for carrying into practice the above line ofaction and aiding the scattered insurgent forces to prolong the anti-British war of resistance fell on the mass of the peasantry. Allcontemporary British chronicles of the story of this war inRohilkhand, Bundelkhand, Oudh and Bihar contain numerous stories ofhow the Indian peasantry loyally and devotedly carried out the behestsof the insurgent high command. Let us take only one example:

Even when the cause of the mutincers seemed to be failing, theytestified no good will, but withheld the information we wanted andoften misled us.42

In a national uprising that has failed, the role and contribution ofany class can best be estimated by the amount of sacrifice it makes.Measured in these terms, the peasantry is at the top of the roll ofhonour of the 1857 uprising. Holmes states:

The number of armed men, who succumbed in Oudh, was about 150,000, ofwhom at least 35,000 were sepoys.43 ...

The rural population as a whole rose against the new land systemimposed over their heads by the British rulers. Secondly, that thepattern of struggle was to eliminate the new landlords created underthe British regime, destroy their records, hound them out of villagesand seize their lands and attack all the symbols of British authorityespecially the kutchery (law-court), the tehsil (revenue office) andthe thana (the police outpost). Thirdly, the base of the struggle wasthe mass of the peasantry and the rural poor while the leadership wasin the hands of the landlords dispossessed under the British laws.Fourthly, this pattern of struggle fitted into the general pattern ofthe 1857 national uprising, the class struggle in the countryside wasdirected not against the landlords as a whole but only against asection of them, those who had been newly created by the British undertheir laws and acted as their loyal political supporters, that is, itwas subordinated to the broad need of national unity against theforeign usurper.

Talmiz Khaldun’s thesis that during this uprising “The Indianpeasantry was fighting desperately to free itself of foreign as wellas feudal bondage” and that “the mutiny ended as a peasant war againstindigenous landlordism and foreign imperialism” is thus anexaggeration. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Indianpeasantry during this struggle decisively burst through the feudalbonds either politically or economically to transform a broad-basednational uprising into a peasant war. On the other hand all theevidence that is known is to the contrary....

The Indian peasants made a compromise with the traditional landlordsin the interests of the common struggle but the landlords becameterrified by this alliance when they saw it in the living form of arevolutionary popular struggle. Gubbins, who had wide personalexperience of Oudh and other Eastern districts, states:

Much allowance should, no doubt, be made in considering the conduct ofthe Indian gentry at this crisis, on account of their want of power toresist the armed and organised enemy which had suddenly risen againstus. The enemy always treated with the utmost severity those amongtheir countrymen who were esteemed to be friends of the British cause.Neither their lives nor their property were safe. Fear, therefore, nodoubt entered largely into the natives which induced many to desert us.44

Narrow class interest and fear of the “armed and organised” masses,whom the British rightly called “the enemy,” ultimately led the Indianfeudal gentry to desert the revolutionary struggle and seek terms withthe foreign rulers. The situation led to feudal treachery andsuppressoin of the national uprising, and not to the strengthening offeudalism in the minds and the later movement of the Indian peasantryand the people.

Dr R.C. Majumdar himself quotes the Supreme Government “Narrative ofEvents” issued on September 12, 1857:

In consequence of the general nature of the rebellion and theimpossibility of identifying the majority of the rebels, theMagistrate recommended the wholesale burning and destruction of allvillages proved to have sent men to take active part in the rebellion.45

This is how the British understood the peasant contribution to the1857 uprising. Could there be a restoration for the feudal order inIndia on the shoulders of such a peasantry?

The 1857 uprising is a historic landmark. It marks the end of a wholehistoric phase and the beginning of a new one. On the British side itfinished the Company’s rule and led to direct government under theBritish Crown. The period of rule of the merchant monopolists of theEast India Company ended and the dominance of the industrialbourgeoisie of Britain in the affairs of India began. On the Indianside, the revolt failed but the Indian people got that experiencewhich enabled them to build the modern Indian national movement on newfoundations and with new ideas, and the lessons of 1857 provedinestimable. Both sides drew and applied their lessons from the 1857experience in the subsequent period. The British were the victors,they went into action soon; we were the vanquished, we took longer.

From their experience of the 1857 uprising the British rulers sharplychanged their policy towards the Indian feudal elements, anddiscarding the old policy of attacking their interests, they adopted anew policy of reconciling them as the main social base of their rulein India. The Indian people from their experience of the Indianfeudals drew the lesson for the next phase of their movement thattheir anti-British struggle to be successful must also be an anti-feudal struggle. Those who were so far regarded by the Indian peopleas their traditional leaders were now rightly considered as betrayersof the 1857 uprising and the Indian puppets of the British power.

As regards the Indian princess, the policy of annexations was givenup. Queen Victoria in her Proclamation promised them:

We shall respect the rights, dignity and honour of native pricess asour own. Very candidly Lord Canning in his Minute of April 30 noted:The safety of our rule is increased and not diminished by themaintenance of native chiefs well affected to us.

How the Indian national movement understood the post-1857 Britishpolicy towards the princes is best reflected in Nehru’s Discovery ofIndia where he states that the retention of the native states wasdesigned to disrupt the unity of India,46 Indian princes playing therole of Britain’s fifth column in India.47....

The Army was reorganised after the sepoy mutiny, which had set thecountry aflame. The proportion of British troops was increased andthey were primarily used as an “army of occupation” to maintaininternal security while the Indian troops were organised and trainedfor service abroad to subjugate Asian and African territories forBritish imperialism. The artillery was taken away from the Indianhands. All higher appointments were reserved for the British, anIndian could not even get the King’s Commission nor get employment inthe Army headquarters except as a clerk in non-military work. TheIndian regiments were reorganised on the principle of divide and ruleand recruitment confined to the so-called martial races.

But in the long run nothing availed the British. The memory of thesepoys’ role during 1857 never died not only in the memory of theIndian people but also of the Indian armed forces. As the modernnational movement grew, it could not leave the Indian Army, however“reorganised”, untouched. During the 1930 national struggle, theGarhwali soldiers refused to fire at the Indian demonstrators atPeshawar. During the post-war national upsurge after a series of“mutinies” in the Indian Army and Air Force, the Royal Indian Navyrevolted on February 18, 1946 and the next day the British PrimeMinister announced the dispatch of the Cabinet Mission to India andnegotiations for the independence of India began.

The Indian administrative machine was reorganised as a colossalbureaucratic machine with Indians employed only in subordinatepositions, all real power and responsibility resting in British hands.The Queen’s Proclamation had promised that there would be no racialdiscrimination against the Indians in employment in governmentservices. The reality, however, was different...

After 1857, politically, even Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had suggested thatIndians should be included in the Legislative Council to keep thegovernment in touch, with the people. In 1861 the Indian Councils Actprovided for the inclusion for legislative purposes of non-officialmembers. In 1862, three Indians were so nominated. These legislatures,in which real power remained with the exclusive British Executive,were used by patriotic Indian statesmen as tribunes of the Indianpeople and to unmask British policies and thus aid the growth of thenational movement. The British tactic of divide and rule, however,succeeded in another way. The institution of separate electorates forthe Muslims was the first expression of the poisonous two-nationtheory which ultimately resulted in the partition of the country atthe very time of gaining independence.

The British Government, which claimed credit for early social reformmeasures like banning of sati, widow remarriage, etc., after theexperience of 1857 and its subsequent alliance with the Indian feudalreaction became the opponent of all progressive social measures.

Hindu law was largely custom and as customs change, the law also wasapplied in a different way. Indeed there was no provision of Hindu Lawwhich could not be changed by customs. The British replaced thiselastic customary law by judicial decisions based on the old texts andthese decisions became precedents which had to be rigidly followed…Change could only come by positive legislation but the BritishGovernment, which was the legislating authority, had no wish toantagonise the conservative elements on whose support it counted. Whenlater some legislative powers were given to the partially electedassemblies, every attempt to promote social reform legislation wasfrowned upon by the authorities and sternly discouraged.48

The British Government thus became the defender of social reaction inIndia, after 1857!

The British overlords had created an English educated Indian middle-class to get cheap and efficient and denationalised Indian cadres forthe lower essential rungs of their administration.

Educated natives took no part in the sepoy mutiny: despite the chargesto the contrary, they heartily disapproved of the revolt and showedthemselves faithful and loyal to the British authorities throughoutthe course of that crisis.49

The above is not wholly true. Dr Sen states: Even this small minority(of modern educated Indians) were not unanimous in the support of theGovernment. An educated Hindu of Bengal complained of ‘a hundred yearsof unmitigated active tyranny unrelieved by any trait of generosity’.

“A century and more of intercourse between each other,” he adds, “hasnot made the Hindus and the Englishman friends or even peaceful fellowsubjects.”50

Calcutta was the biggest centre of these modern educated Indians. Theywere at the time themselves concentrating upon the struggle againstHindu orthodoxy and the religious terms in which the cause of theinsurgents was clothed repelled them. Because of their historic originand the limitations of their political experience they wronglyidentified progress with British rule. They were not, however,“faithful and loyal” in the sense Earl Granville imagined them to be,servile to the British rulers. This was proved in the very next yearafter the 1857-58 uprising was suppressed when the Bengaliintelligentsia stirred the whole of Bengal in solidarity with theIndigo Revolt, with the peasants of Bengal and Bihar who were victimsof unimaginable oppression and exploitation of the British planters.Again it was Surendranath Banerji who took the initiative to run anall-India campaign against lowering the age for the ICS, whichpatently went against the Indian candidates. Then came the campaignsregarding the IIbert Bill and racial discrimination in courts and theVernacular Press Act and so on. As the new intelligentsia saw more andmore of India under the British Crown all their illusions about QueenVictoria’s 1858 Proclamation being the Magna Carta of Indian libertiesgradually evaporated and they began to agitate for political reforms.In 1882 the Grand Old Man of Indian nationalism, Dababhai Naoroji,wrote: Hindus, Mohammedans and Parsees alike are asking whether theBritish rule is to be a blessing or a curse...This is no longer asecret, or a state of things not quite open to those of our rulers whowould see.51...

Even before 1857, From India a policy of imperial expansion wasplanned and the British Government of India was set on the perilousroad of conquest and annexation in the East for the benefit ofBritain, but of course at the cost of the Indian tax-payer.52

The age of the Empire, based on India, began after 1857. India nowbecame in fact no less than in name a British possession. The IndianEmpire was at this time a continental order, a political structurebased on India, and extending its authority from Aden to Hongkong.53

In this period, Afghanistan and Persia were made virtual Britishprotectorates, expeditions and missions were sent to Sinkiang andTibet in the North and the British position in South-East Asia andChina consolidated.

“The continental involved a subordinate participation of India”54 aspolicemen, traders and usurers, and coolies in the plantations ofBritain’s growing colonies. Indian resources and manpower were thusused not only to conquer but maintain and run Britain’s colonialEmpire.

This, however, was only one side of the picture. As part of winningforeign support for the Indian uprising Azimullah Khan, Nana’srepresentative, is reported to have built contacts with Russia andTurkey. Rango Bapuji, the Satara representative, is also reported tohave worked with Azimullah. Bahadur Shah’s court claimed Persiansupport. All this was in the old principle that Britain’s enemies areour friends. But Britain was the colossus of that period, and thefeudal ruling circles of these countries could never be in any hurryto come to the aid of the Indian revolt. They could at best exploit itand await its outcome.

This was, however, not the attitude of democratic circles in these andother countries... there was in all democratic circles of thecivilised world great sympathy for the Indian uprising. Great andhistoric is the significance of the Chartist leaders’ solidarity withthe Indian national uprising. Modern British labour movement dates itsbirth from the Chartists. Modern Indian national movement dates itsbirth from the 1857 uprising. What a new fraternal vision emerges fromthe memory that the British proletariat and the Indian people havestood together ever since the beginning of their respective movements.The Chinese date the birth of their modern anti-imperialist nationalmovement from the Taiping uprising as we date ours from the 1857uprising. The Chinese paper (presented at the symposium on thecentenary of the 1857 Revolt) documents the hitherto unknown storythat the Chinese people responded sympathetically to the 1857 uprisingand the Indian sepoys deserted to the Taipings and fought shoulder toshoulder with them against the common enemy. Marx noted the newphenomenon that the revolt in the Anglo-Indian army has coincided witha general disaffection exhibited against supremacy by the GreatAsiatic nations, the revolt of the Bengal Army being, beyond doubt,intimately connected with the Persian and Chinese wars.55

Thus the great national uprising of 1857 laid the foundation for theworldwide democratic solidarity with the Indian struggle in its nextphase and our new national movement built itself on healthyinternationalist traditions. For example, in the twenties, the Indiannational movement vigorously opposed the imperialist policies in theMiddle East and expressed solidarity with the Egyptian struggle underZaglul Pasha, in the thirties it expressed practical solidarity withthe Chinese people’s struggle against the Japanese invaders and theworldwide anti-fascist movement and so on. It was thus no accidentthat after the achievement of independence India emerged as a greatworld power championing the cause of world peace and the liberation ofall subject nations....n

[*NOTES

1. Major B.D. Basn, Rise of The Christian Power in India, (1931), p.953.

2. Marx, unsigned article, “The Indian Question”, New York DailyTribune, August 14, 1857.

3. Quoted by R.C. Majumdar, The Sepoy Mutiny and Revolt of 1857, p.278.

4. Marx, “The British Rule in India”, New York Daily Tribune, June 25,1853.

5. R.P. Dutt, India Today, p. 98.

6. Marx, “The East India Company—Its History and Results”, New YorkDaily Tribune, July 11, 1853.

7. Ramkrishna Mukherjee, The Rise and Fall of the East India Company,p. 174.

8. K.M. Panikkar, Asia and Western Dominance, p. 99.

9. Allamah Fazle Haq of Khayrabad, “The Story of the War ofIndependence 1857-58”, Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society,vol. V, pt. 1, January 1957, p. 29.

10. National Herald, May 10, 1957.

11. Mukherjee, op. cit., p. 223.

12. R.C. Dutt, The Economic History of India in the Victorian Age, p.xv.

13. Montgomeny Martin, Eastern India, Introduction to vol. I.

14. Mukherjee, op. cit., pp. 224-25.

15. Marx, “The British Rule in India”, New York Daily Tribune, June25, 1853.

16. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 229.

17. Charles Ball, Indian Mutiny, vol. II. p. 242.

18. Sir T. Metcalfe, Two Narratives of the Mutiny at Delhi, pp. 98-99.

19. Quoted by Edward Thompson, The Other Side of the Medal, pp. 73-74.20. Quoted by Savarkar, Indian War of Independence, p. 134.

Hindu-Muslim relations are very much complicated—the knottiest problemin Indian history. Since the advent of Islam in the Indiansubcontinent more than millennium years ago, India faced a powerfulchallenge from a militant and vigorous religion with an egalitarianappeal. India failed to stem the tide of the rapid spread of Islam dueto internal squabbles and degeneration of society. In the caste-riddenBrahminical society the lower castes were denied proper human rights.They were not only socially degraded but also economically exploited.It is no wonder, therefore, that millions of them welcomed Islam as areligion of deliverance and to gain human dignity. The theory ofsocial liberation seems to be right for substantial reasons inIslamisation in India. Swami Vivekananda had rightly said:

The Mohammedan conquest of India came as a salvation to thedowntrodden, to the poor. That is why one-fifth of our people havebecome Mohammedan. It was not the sword that did it all. It would bethe height of madness to think that it was all the work of sword andfire.

But it does not mean force was not at all applied in Islamisation.However, the major role was played by the Sufi saints and Pirs in it.Nevertheless, wholesale Islamisation did not take place in India likeAfghanistan, Persia and other countries perhaps due to the inherentstrength of the Hindu philosophy in spite of its many drawbacks.

The advent of Islam produced tremendous reactions in India. Hinduismwanted to protect itself by going into its inner shells with strictercaste rules and regulations. But this hardly helped in preventing theegalitarian influence of Islam on Hindu society. The Bhakti movementwas its product.

But living hundreds of years side by side, eating the same grain fromthe common fields, drinking the same water and inhaling the same air,the Hindu and Muslim societies and religions underwent profoundchanges. Islam of India today is not the same as what it was when itarrived. Hinduism also could not remain the same. Both the religionshad influenced each other. There was some kind of assimilation betweenthe two in spite of frequent clashes and mutual hostility. Butunfortunately a composite Indian nation has failed to emergeassimilating the two major religions in India due to various factorswhich led ultimately to the partition of the country.

Dr Panchanan Saha’s new book, Hindu-Muslim Relations in a NewPerspective, is projected on a large canvas from the advent of Islam—gradual Islamisation and its causes, conflict and assimilation,sprouting of the seeds of separation by the conscious British policyof divide-and-rule, Hindu-Muslim revivalism and the short-sightedpolicy of the Indian political leaders which ultimately led to thecommunal carnage and partition of India.

In the chapter, “Conflict and Assimilation”, Saha emphasises the roleplayed by the Sufi saints, Bhakti movement as well as attempts of theMughal Emperor, Akbar, and his great grandson, Dara Shiko, to help theprocess of reconciliation between the Hindus and Muslims. Butunfortunately this process was not properly taken forward due tovarious factors, particularly the emergence of Wahhabism and Hindu-Muslim revivalism.

♦

IN his analysis Saha has been seldom swayed by emotion; rather he hasremained mostly faithful to rationalism. He holds that the causes ofspread of separatism among the Muslims of India are to be found in therefusal of the already matured Hindu bourgeoisie in sharing power withthe newly emerging Muslim bourgeoisie. Muslim bourgeoisie developedlater due to their empathy to British rule and Western education.

Saha has sympathetically discussed the Fourteen Points of M.A. Jinnahin this direction and the rejection of the Congress to share powerwith the Muslim League in Uttar Pradesh after the elections of 1936and to collaborate with Fazlul Haque in Bengal for forming a secularMinistry. It seems class interest played a more decisivie role inmaking this choice than the greater interest of the country.

There is a simplistic explanation of Hindu-Muslim cleavage by puttingthe sole responsibility on the British policy of divide-and-rule. ButSaha appears to be correct when he cites Tagore—“The Satan cannotenter unless there is a hole to get in.” Tagore believed that divisionamong Hindus and Muslims existed and the cunning British rulersutilised it to prolong their rule.

In his last chapter, entitled “Was Partition Inescapable?”, Saha hasnot traversed the beaten tracks of numerous scholars of partition. Hehas used substantial Pakistani literature on partition to prove hispoint.

There is an enigma why Gandhiji, in spite of opposing partition on thebasis of religion tooth and nail, ultimately accepted it as a faitaccompli. The Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, lamented thatthey were thrown to the wolves. What went on behind-the-scenes is amystery to this day.

It seems that the Hindu big bourgeoisie wanted an unchallenged marketeven in partitioned India. They seemed to think that a truncatedPakistan would not be viable. Whatever the reasons, it is evident thathad the Indian leaders shown true sagacity and leadership free ofclass or emotional bias, there might have been a Confederation ofIndia based on the Cabinet Mission’s Plan which the Congress initiallyaccepted but subsequently refused to do so for reasons that areunknown. Hence it is not inappropriate to quote The Times of India:

It is legitimate to enquire who is responsible for this debacle. ….the parties concerned, the Congress, the British Government and theMuslim League, are all more or less responsible, although on the factsset forth, the Congress should get the first prize.

One could have expected that such a serious book should have remainedfree from printing and editorial errors.

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Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol XLVI, No 50

Hindu Terrorism: The Shock of RecognitionWednesday 3 December 2008, by Badri Raina

Epigraph

“Underlying these religions were a common set of beliefs about how youtreat other people and how you aspire to act, not just for yourselfbut also for the greater good.”

(Obama in his interview about Religion given to Cathleen Falsani,March 27, 2004; cf. to his mother’s teaching about the validity ofdiverse faiths and the value of tolerance.)

I

So, now, India is home to “Hindu” terrorism. Departing from the moreusual banner-appelation, “Saffron Terror”, I wish the fact to beregistered that saffron is drawn from the stamin of a delicate andindescribably pretty mauve flower grown exclusively in my home valleyof Kashmir, and exclusively by Muslims. My inherited memories of itare thereby sweet and secular to the core. Also, saffron when used tograce milk products, Biryani, or to brew the heavenly kehwa is a thingof the gods truly.

It is only when it is coerced against the use of nature to colourpolitics that it rages against the sin. Then, don’t we know, whatgruesome consequences begin?

I think it proper, therefore, to stick with the more direct and honestdescription, “Hindu” terrorism, since, much against their grain, evenIndia’s premier TV channels are now bringing us news of “Hindu”terrorism, so compelling the materials gathered by the investigatingagencies thus far. This despite the fact that in my view the term“Hindu” trerrorism is as erroneous as the term “Muslim” terrorism.Even though not a religious man myself, I am able to see that beingHindu or Muslim by accident of birth has no necessary connect with howone’s politics turns out to be in adult life. A plethora of specificcontexts and shaping histories are here provenly more to the point.

II

It was way back in 1923 that Savarkar, never a practising Hindu(indeed a self-confessed atheist) had first understood that from thisbenign term, “Hindu”, could be drawn the toxic racial conceptHindutva, and made to serve a forthrightly fascist purpose. ThatBrahminism had always been a socially toxic form of Hinduism was ofcourse an enabling prehistory to the new project.

He it was who established Abhinav Bharat in Pune (1904), thattheoretical hotbed of twice-born Brahminical casteism against whichlow-caste social reformers such as Phule, Periyar, and Ambedkar wereto struggle their whole lives long.

Such casteism was made the instrument of communalist politics to servetwo major objectives: one, to overwhelm and negate the specificcultural and material oppressions of the low-caste within the HinduVarna system , and two, to elevate the low-caste as a warrior of acommon “Hindutva” army against the chief common “enemy”, the Muslim.Such an army has been seen to be needed to salvage the “real” nationfrom this so-called common enemy who continues to be represented tothis day by the RSS and its hydra-headed “educational” frontorganisations as an “invader” still bent on seeking to convert Indiainto an Islamic theocratic state.

Aided in these mythical fears and constructions by the British duringthe crucial decades leading upto Independence, India’s majoritarianfascists continue thus to keep at bay all consideration of secularoppressions based entirely in the brutal social order of Capitalistexpropriation.

Savarkar thus counselled how a resurgent nation could result only if“Hinduism was militarised, and the military Hinduised”.

Clearly enough, the serving Army Colonel, S.P. Purohit, and the otherretired Major, one Upadhyay, who the Mumbai ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad)tells us, are at the centre of the Malegaon terrorist blasts ofSeptember 29, 2008, alongwith Sadhvi Pragya and the rogue-sadhu,Amreetanand—and very possibly complicit in half-a dozen other blastsas well—seem to have heeded Savarkar’s advice to the hilt.

Indeed, in his narco-test confessions, Colonel Purohit, sources havetold some TV channels (Times Now), admits to his guilt and justifieshis actions as retribution for what he thinks SIMI (Student’s IslamicMovement of India) have been doing. He is understood to have furtherindicated that the rogue sadhu, Amreetanand, nee Dayanand etc., hasbeen the kingpin and chief coordinator and devisor of several otherblasts carried out by this cell, including the blasts at the reveredAjmer Dargah (Mausoleum of the 12th century Sufi saint, Chisti, whichto this day draws devotees across faiths the world-over), and atKanpur.

The ATS are now busy exploring the routes through which huge sums ofmoney have been brought into the country for such terrorist activityas hawala transactions, and whether the RDX, suspected to be used inthe Malegaon blast, was procured by Colonel Purohit through Armyconnections. It is to be noted that Purohit has been in MilitaryIntelligence, and serving in Jammu and Kashmir, where it is thought hemade contact with the rogue sadhu, Amreetanand.

(Indeed, as I write, news comes of the ATS claiming that Purohitactually stole some 60 kilos of RDX which was in his custody whiledoing duty at Deolali, and that in his narco-test confession he admitsto passing it on to one “Bhagwan” for use in the blast on theSamjhauta Express train in February, 2007.)

Needless to say, that alongwith the courts, we will also require thatthe ATS is actually able to obtain convictions rather than merely pileon evidence which may not be admissible in law.

To return to the argument:

As I suggested in my last column, “Notions of the Nation” (Znet,November 4), Hindutva militarism since the establishment of the HinduMahasabha and the RSS has been inspired by the desire to emulate andthen better Muslim “aggressiveness” seen as a racial characteristicthat defined “Muslim” rule in India, and rendered Hindus “limp” and“cowardly”.

Thus, if Savarkar established Abhinav Bharat, Dr Moonje, an avowedMussolini admirer who in turn inspired Dr Hedgewar to establish theRSS on Vijay Dashmi of 1924 (victory day, denoting the liquidation ofthe Dravidian Ravana by the Aryan Kshatriya warrior, Ram), establishedthe Bhondsala Military Academy at Indore (1937). It now transpiresthat this academy has been playing host to the Bajrang Dal formilitarist training routines etc., and its Director, one Raikar, hasput in his papers. Unsurprisingly enough, both these institutions arenow under the scanner.

III

Over the last decade, terrorist blasts have occurred in India across awide variety of sites and in major cities and towns.

Many of these blasts have taken place outside mosques and knownMuslim- majority locations, as well outside cinema halls that werethought to be showing movies inimical to Hindu glory.

Briefly, these sites are: cinemas in Thane and Vashi in Maharashtra,Jalna, Purna, Parbhani, and Malegaon towns, again all in Maharashtra—and all areas of high Muslim density, in Hyderabad outside a famousold mosque, and in Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat.

Curiously, in the Surat episode, some sixteen odd bombs were foundplaced along the main thoroughfare in tree branches, on house-tops, onelectric poles and so forth. Not one of them however exploded. Thiswas thought to be the result of defective switches. Curiouscircumstance that; besides the wonder that Ahmedabad’s Muslims couldfind such sprawling access to such strategic locations without Modiknowing a thing.

Yet, regardless of where the blasts have taken place, almost withoutexception the Pavlovian response of state agencies as well as, sad tosay, media channels has been invariably to point fingers of suspicionand culpability towards one or the other “Islamic” outfit.

Often, young Muslims men have been rounded up in the scores and heldfor days of brutal questioning without the least prima facie evidence.Nearly in all such cases, however reluctantly, they have had to be letoff.

The most recent case is that of some fifteen young Muslims picked upafter the Hyderabad blasts. Tortured with electric shocks, they havenevertheless been found to be innocent and let go.

Indeed, after the gruesome blasts in the Samjhauta Express—a trainservice of reconciliation and confidence-building between India andPakistan—in which some 68 people were burnt to cinders, 45 of themPakistani citizens, fingers were immediately pointed towards the SIMI.

Yet, the ATS of Mumbai now suspects that this may also be the doing ofthe “Hindu” terrorists in custody. These speculations have been raisedby the circumstance that the suitcases that held the bombs had Indorelabels on them.

Just as the ATS now suspects that more than half a dozen blasts (thetwo at Malegaon, in 2006 and 2008, at the cinemas in Thane and Vashi,at Jalna, at Purna, at Parbhani, provenly at Nanded and Kanpur) haveall been the handiwork of “Hindu” terror groups.

IV

For some years, reputed civil and human rights organisations, andindividual members of civil society that have included journalists,judges, lawyers, writers, artists, teachers, students, and labourorganisations, besides organised Muslim fora and Left parties, havebeen cautioning both state agencies and media conglomerates to:

• desist from the Pavlovian haste with which some one or other Muslimgroup is immediately named and labelled literally within an hour ofthe occurrence of a blast, thus contributing to the maligning of theentire Muslim community;

• to consider the possibility that groups other than those involvingMuslims could be involved;

• to refrain from covering up prima facie evidence which points tosuch possibilities; indeed, where such evidence seems conclusive, asthe complicity of the Bajrang Dal at Nanded and Kanpur;

• to ponder the question as to why Muslims should effect blasts withintheir own localities or outside their mosques;

• to weigh the consequences for the Muslim psyche of the failure ofthe state to prevent repeated pogroms against them, and to find orpunish the guilty; not to speak of active state connivance in thosepogroms (Moradabad, 198o; Nellie, 1983; Hashimpura, 1987; Bhagalpur,1989; Mumbai, 1992-93; Gujarat, 2002, to cite just the more recentones);

• to permit transparency in the matter of police investigations withdue regard for the Constitutional rights of those held in custody—suchas visitation, access to legal defence, norms of the recording ofconfession and other evidence etc.;

• to respect the obligatory presumption of innocence until anyone isjuridically found guilty;

Time and again these cautions and rightful prerogatives have beentrampled under foot.

Aided by the loud biases of the corporate media which have tended toreflect the predilections both of free-market imperialism andcomprador urban middle class sentiments in India’s metropolitan towns,India’s state agencies and that “all-knowing” species, theIntellegence expert, who seems ever present to reinforce anti-Muslimprejudice, have tended to feed massively into the politics of theHindu Right-wing.

For years on end, India’s chief malady has been sought to be seen toreside in “Islamic” terrorism, and in the complicit refusal of thesecularists to allow draconian preventive laws to be brought back onthe books. Not in poverty, malnutrition, disease, absence of healthcare or clean drinking water, or lack of steady work among the urbanpoor, or the ousted tribals, disenfranchised farmers, chronic failureof primary schooling and so forth among some 75 per cent of Indians.And most of them belonging to the Muslim, Dalit, and Tribalcommunities.

And to repeat for the nth time, this three-fourths of Indians able tospend just or under Rupees Twenty a day, all according to thegovernments’ own Arjun Sengupta Committee Report.

Not to speak of the venomous communalisation of the polity, thealienation and ghettoisation of the minorities, and the state’sfailure or unwillingness to carry through schemes that could redressthese maladies.

As to new terror laws, the government of the day may protest that ithas all the laws it wants, and more; as well as the fact that theworst terrorist attacks took place when laws like the dreaded POTA(Prevention of Terrorism Act) was on the books during the tenure ofthe NDA regime led by the ultra-”nationalist” BJP. Small dent is madeby any regime of empirically-founded facts, or fair-minded argumentson the right-wing fascists and their fattened constituency.

V

Now, of course, a radically transformed milieu is unravelling.

Photos and videos are doing the rounds that show the “Hindu”terrorists currently under investigation in close and intimateproximity to top leaders of the RSS, the VHP, and the BJP as well.

Had POTA indeed been on the books today, such evidence would haveauthorised the police to put them all behind bars on the charge ofassociating with those under investigation for “terrorism”. And allthat without any recourse to bail either.

Predictably, nonetheless, after some days of dumbfoundedcrestfallenness (remember that the main electoral plank of the BJP inthe elections now under way in several states and in the soon-to-be-held parliamentary polls is the failure of the Congress to eradicate“terrorism” because of its “minority appeasement” policies), the Right-wing fascists are back to brazen form.

Even as the projected Prime Ministerial candidate, Advani (the high-point of whose career remains the successful demolition of the Babrimosque) seeks to strike a stance of caution, party hard-liners havetaken to peddling outrageous theories.

As a complement to the well-known Pavlovian hunch that “all terroristsare Muslims”, we are now told by the likes of Rajnath Singh, the partyPresident, that “no Hindu can be a terrorist”, that is to say evenwhen he or she is found to be one.

This for the reason that what the ordinary man calls “terrorism” is infact “nationalism” where any Hindu be involved. Live and learn.

Other than that, it is both interesting and laughable that spokesmenand women of the BJP are today reduced to gurgitating every singleargument that Muslims and civil rights organisations have to this dayvoiced:

• presume innocence until found guilty;

• desist from the “political conspiracy” to malign a whole community;

• do not let enemies of the Hindu-right propagate fake evidenceagainst them, since all evidence against them must be fake inprinciple;

• and most outlandishly, do not communalise terrorism; that fromIndia’s rank communalists who have done nothing but communaliseterrorism ever since we remember!

VI

Even as these new developments point to a potentially mortal combatamong “Hindu” and “Muslim” terror groups, I venture to think that thesituation also offers opportunities of far-reaching redressal for allthree axes that matter: the state and its agencies, the party-political system, and the polity generally.

First off, if, as has been the case, the Congress’ secular credentialshave consistently been vitiated by, willy nilly, playing second-fiddleto Hindu-communalist appeasement, the denuding of the Hindu-Rightoffers it the opportunity of a lifetime to assert the supremacy of theconstitutional scheme of things, without fear or favour.

It is indeed a circumstance that can now help the Congress and othersecular parties to come down like a ton on communalism of all shadesthat underpin the fatal subversion of the secular republic without theneed for apology.

In this endeavour, its greatest inspiration must come from two factorson the Muslim side of the issue:

one, that over the last year every single major and influential Muslimcultural and religious organisation has publicly, and repeatedly,denounced through speech, act, and fatwa “terrorism” as un-Islamic anda rightful candidate for punishment under law;

and, two, that without exception they have pleaded only and ever forfair and just treatment at the hands of the authorised instruments ofstate, both when victimised by pogroms and suspected as culprits; andfor credible pursuit of those that persecute them.

Not once has any Muslim organisation worth the name suggested thatMuslims have any claims that override the cosntitutional regime oflaws and procedures pertaining to all citizens of the Republic.

All that in stark contrast to the refusal, however camouflaged orstrategised, of the RSS and its affiliates to accept either thesecular Constitution or the notion of secular citizenship.

It is to be recalled that the RSS tactically acquiesced toacknowledging the primacy of the national flag over its own saffronone in 1949 as a quid pro quo to its release from the ban imposed onit after Gandhi’s murder.

To this day it seeks to overthrow the Republic as constituted by lawand to replace it by a theocratic Hindu Rashtra wherein theprerogatives of citizenship will be determined not by secular,democratic equality but racial difference among Indians (all thatbrutally codified in Golwalker’s two books, We, and Our NtionhoodDefined; and, the later Bunch of Thoughts which explicitly designatesMuslims as the nations’s “Enemy Number One” in an exclusive chapter).

However Hindu cultural politics may have come to infect sections ofthe fattened urbanites, the Congress must show the conviction thatnone of these in this day and age would be willing to back what isexplicitly “terrorist” activity, indistinguishable from any other,once the matter is proven.

This then is a fine moment to release a new energetic politics thatrecharges the conviction and inspiration of the non-discriminatoryhumanism that informed the leaders of the freedom movement, and thusto disengage whatever popular base the Hindu-Right has built over theyears since the demolition of the Babri mosque from its fascistleaderships and cadres.

Just as, in fact, many BJP supporters are busy thinking whether theyare indeed willing to carry their love of Muslim-haters quite to thepoint where those other dreams of Indian super-powerdom are seriouslyjeopardised by a war of competing terrorisms.

It is also a golden opportunity for the Congress-led UPA, should itcome back to power, to take a hard look at the communalist virus thathas infected law-enforcement agencies over the decades, and to makebold to effect reforms of a far-reaching character, such as includethe recruitment of Muslims and other “minorities” in due proportion tothe forces, and not just among the lower ranks.

Speaking of the Army, some three per cent Muslims are today among itsranks—some sixty years after Independence. And I won’t make a guess asto how abysmal might in fact be its share among the officer core,colonel and above. And wouldn’t I dearly like to take a peek into whatsort of Indian History is taught India’s future officers at Khada-kvasla and Dehradun? Truly; and who does the teaching as well.

VII

As to the BJP: it has another opportunity as well, namely, toreconstitute itself as a secular party on the Right, bearing fullallegiance to the Constitution in letter and spirit (remember now thatamong other things on the street-level, the NDA regime led by the BJPdid constitute a Constitution Review Committee—an ominous enough movethat, thankfully, was duly aborted in course), and shunning once andfor all its enslavement to the RSS and its fascist vision of India,its history, culture and state.

Failing to do so, the BJP may succeed in causing further mayhem; butit is highly unlikely now to attain the sort of ascendance it seeksthrough fair means and foul.

Most of all, the BJP must understand that the Muslims of India, andChristians as well, have the inalienable right to live and work in thecountry on the terms set by the Constitution, not by the RSS or theSangh Parivar.

And, conversely, that the BJP itself is as subject to thoseconstitutional stipulations as any another collective of Indians whopractice their beliefs and politics.

Let the BJP notice the epigraph chosen for this column; it comes fromthe new President-elect of the one country that the BJP adores. Orwill it now, with a Black man at the helm?

A different voice floats from there.

Time for the BJP to change its langoti, and say “yes we can” also bepeaceable and law-abiding citizens of the Republic of India. And toprize and protect its magnificent plurality like all sensible andhumane Indians.

http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1067.html

Mainstream Weekly

Mainstream, Vol. XLVII, No 34, August 8, 2009

Will RSS see the Ground Reality and join to Salve India‘s Core Values?Sunday 16 August 2009, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

Of late, the RSS has been accusing the BJP of inconsistency and alsoof failure to convey the real meaning of Hindutva. The BJP hascertainly been inconsistent. It has been in two minds because like theCongress, it, too, is preoccupied, not with any principle or anyconcern for correct ideation, but with the slogan that can help itcapture power. But on the question of the real meaning of Hindutva, isthe RSS itself clear and consistent? It has a very large and committedcadre. Why does it depend on the BJP to “convey the real meaning”? Towhat extent has the RSS itself succeeded in conveying the supposedlyreal meaning?

The RSS has been saying that anybody who regards India as his/hermotherland and a holy land is a Hindu and that the Indian Muslims areMohammadi Hindus and the Indian Christians are Isahi Hindus and so on.Now, there is a large body of people who plainly call themselvesHindus. They are not the followers of any one Prophet or of any oneBook. They have a large body of sacred books – the Vedas, theUpanishads, the Geeta and Puranas. They venerate many Rishis and adoresome maryada-purushes like Lord Rama and Lord Krishna. How should theybe described? They cannot be called Ramiah Hindus or KrishnaiahHindus. They would not like to be called Sakti-ite Hindus, or Shivaiteor Vaishnavaite Hindus. Saktism, shaivism, and vaishnavism have got somerged in their thinking that they are partly sakta, partly shaiva andpartly vaishnava. They worship all these principles as differentmanifestations of the one Supreme Reality in differing circumstances.

If they are to be called “Sanatan dharmis” or in brief, “Sanatanis”,why did the RSS not launch a movement insisting that the members ofthe community, now plainly called Hindus, add a prefix “Sanatani” tobring consistency? Not to do that would mean they would continue todescribe themselves as Hindus by religion, and again, as Hindus bynationality. This becomes ridiculous.

Hinduism is no particular religion. It is a philosophy of religions.The great nationalist leader, late Bipin Chandra Pal, describedHinduism as a “confederal principle of co-existence of all religions”.In deference to this spirit, the RSS had composed a verse in which thenames of pious Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Jains were includedas persons to be remembered and revered early every morning, beforebeginning the day’s work.

Socio-Cultural Heritage got Degraded

IF this is Hinduism, how does Hindutva differ from it? The RSS’scryptic answer is, Hindutva is the concept of “geoculturalnationalism”. Implicitly, it says that long before India’s politicalunification, India had achieved cultural unification from Jammu andKashmir to Kanyakumari, and from Arunachal and Meghalaya to Saurashtrathrough the medium of two great epics, the Ramayana and theMahabharata, and the Geeta (which is truly a part of the Mahabharata).These great works of the ancient Indians, then universally calledHindus, had imparted values of parental love, filial duties, brotherlylove, unshakeable fidelity to the spouse, the monarch’s obedience tothe people’s wishes, the triumph of dharma over the mightiest wrong-doer—that is, values to be cherished in perpetuity. Hence Hindutva isvalue-orientation, the RSS claims. But can the RSS deny that duringthe so-called Hindu period, caste hatred had taken firm roots as avalue? In ancient India, desertion of the wife for no fault of hersalso had become a tradition, as in the case of Sita. Murder of ashudra for reading the Vedas was sanctioned by the social ethos.

Merit of Religio-Confederal Concept

THE RSS needs to accept that the ancient Hindus had, at a certainstage, come to indulge in regressive social discrimination. Theobverse side of “geocultral nationalism” was socio-cultural dominanceof the higher castes and of the males among them. In the sphere ofphilosophical concepts, however, the ancient Hindus were the mostliberal and the highest in cosmopolitanism (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam).Hence if the RSS does not want to nurture caste inequality and genderinequality, it should give up its “geo-cultural nationalism” (read thesocio-cultural concept) of Hindutva. If it seeks to promote thephilosophy of co-existence of all faiths, which is the ideal ofHinduism, it should opt for the religio-confederal concept ofHindustaniyat. The Muslims of this country have no problem with this,because they have been traditionally describing themselves asHindustanis. The word Hindustan itself came from the verbiage of theIranians.

Four Cardinal Considerations

THE RSS needs to recognise four things. First, the usage of a word ina restricted sense over centuries changes the original acceptation ofthe word. Secondly, the Koran not only teaches the oneness of theCreator. Its esoteric message is the unity of all of creation. Thebigots fail to see this. Hence, for ages, the raging controversywithin Islam, in the words of the eminent historian, the late ProfMohammad Habib, has been “between Wahdat-ul-wujud (God is everything)and Wahdat-ush-shuhud (everything comes from God)”. Those who believein the former become attuned to tolerance, amicable relations betweenall religious and racial communities and (Emperor) Akbar’s doctrine ofsulh-I-kul (Universal Religious Peace). The doctrine of Wahdat-ush-shuhud led to the worship of external shariat (shariat-i-zahiri) andcommunal hatred. (Vide Prof Habib’s Foreword to Dr S.A.A.Rizvi’s book“Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth andSeventeenth Centuries”)

From the above, it follows that the pious people in other faithsshould help in resolving the worldwide intra-Islamic controversy infavour of the former. Declaration of the principle of confederalprinciple in religion in India would largely help resolve Islam’sglobal problem and be a powerful blow against bigotry, for worldpeace.

Thirdly, India’s religio-philosophy’s contribution to Sufism in Islam,and Islam’s contribution to spurring religious reform movements inIndia constitute a glorious chapter in the world’s history. Historiansagree that the growth of Sufism in early Islam was inspired as much byits internal urges as by the influences of Buddhism, the Vedanta andthe Hellenistic religions. Islam’s strident call to equality waswedded to the Arabian nomadic tribes’ aggressive traits. It needed anIndian response. This provided the spark for the religious reformmovements led by Ramananda, Kabir, Namdev, Tukaram, Guru Nanak and SriChaitanya. To talk of inequitous socio-cultural Hindutva as the mottois to belittle the fruitful intermingling of the religio-philosophicalthoughts of early Islam and its contemporary Hinduism.

Sharing is a positive value within Islam. Sharing the means ofsustenance is also an ideal of Hinduism so much so that SwamiVivekananda had proclaimed that the “Hindu ideal is socialistic”.Hence there is considerable convergence between the pristine Islamicand Hindu spirituality.

Fourthly, all the ideals of love and selfless service which theRamayana and the Mahabharata had taught are getting eclipsed under theinfluence of the now globally dominant commercialism, selfism, and cut-throat competitivism in the name of efficiency. To restore ancientIndia’s sublime values, we need a joint fight of all people againstthe West’s consumerist and acquisitive philosophy of life and itsaccompanying paradigm of development. The Biblical value of universallove, the Koranic value of Raham and the Upanishadic teaching “loveothers as you do yourself” can join together to beat back the narrowself-centric modes of thought. For this also, the fascination for theword “Hindutva” needs to be given up to salve the basic values.

Hinduism’s ideal is synthesis, ever higher synthesis. It requiresreconciliation by dissolving the sources of conflict in everyunfolding situation. Its ideal is integration of the heart and thehead (that is, emotion and intellect) of every individual; integrationof individuals with the society; integration of the communities byelevation to newer peaks of harmonious existence. Its form of addressmust, therefore, be such as has a psychological appeal to all people.The language of negativism, or a language that has the flavour of biasagainst any group is alien to the spirit of Hinduism. We needinclusivism in letter and spirit.

Inclusivism is not an apologia for overlooking anybody’s hateful,divisive or separatist trends. But to successfully fight separatism,we must have a robust faith in the ultimate victory of the cause foruniversal good and the preparedness to make sacrifices for it. Successis assured if the approach is positive. Mere criticism/condemnation ofany trend without a pointer to the workable alternative serves only towiden the gulf. It defeats the national purpose.

True, the virulent anti-Hindu, anti-Shia mujaddid movement in the 16thcentury, the bigoted ulama’s secretive conspiracies against EmperorAkbar’s policy of religious tolerance in the 16th century, the wave ofWahabi Jihadism from Arabia in the 18th century, the ani-Hindu tiradeof the later-day incarnate of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in the late 19thcentury and the mayhem for a separate homeland for the Muslims led bythe later-day incarnate of Mohammad Ali Jinnah were all abominationsand deserved condemnation. But the turning of the usually unrulyPathans into the volunteers of non-violence led by the Frontier Gandhi( Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan) was an index of the wonder that communalharmony and national unity could achieve.

Indian Muslims had no Pathological Separatism

IT must not be imagined that the Indian Muslims had always been underseparatist influence. It is well known that in undivided Punjab,undivided Bengal and in Sind and the NWFP, and Balochistan, that is,in the Muslim-majority States which were to constitute Pakistan later,the Muslim League’s influence was meagre. In the elections to theprovincial legislatures and the Central Assembly in 1937, just adecade before the Partition, the Muslim League had cut a sorry figure.In Punjab, it contested only seven out of 84 Muslim reserved seats andwon only two. In Bengal, out of 117 Muslim reserved seats, it had wononly 38. In Sind out of 133 Muslim reserved seats, it had secured only38. In the NWFP, the League was trounced. The League did not get evena single seat in the Central Assembly. This showed the Muslims couldbe mobilised for national purposes if the national leadership couldact wisely and avoid falling into traps.

True, a decade later the results were reversed. The Muslim League wonall the 30 reserved seats for Muslims in the Central Assembly and 428seats out of 492 reserved seats for Muslims in provinciallegislatures. That happened because the elections were held in anatmosphere in which no civilised country would ever allow an electionto take place. The ambience was vitiated by the British rulers’intrigues, the Imams’ fatwas and false propaganda blitz that in theevent of Muslim League’s defeat, the Muslims would not be allowed tocongregate to offer prayers or to bury their dead and that themadrasas would all be closed. The Indian National Congress, which hadthe necessary moral resources and international prestige, could haveasked for postponement of the elections unless there was a stoppage ofthe false propaganda and a calming down of the tempers. Moreover, itshould never have agreed to the elections— a virtual referendum —being held on the basis of restricted franchise in which only 10 percent of the population had the right to vote!

IN post-independence India, the ruling Congress party, in the name ofsecularism, has been following a policy of appeasing the bigotedMuslim clerics. Thereby it encouraged “minority aggressivism” andfurther fuelled the communal fire. But Hindutvavad was no answer tothis. Instead of mitigating the communal fire, it only served tocorroborate Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s and later Jinnah’s thesis that theMuslims and the Hindus were two separate nations. What was neededinstead was the pointer that concessions to the clerics were only acloak for neglect of the Muslim masses’ material, intellectual andspiritual interests. Only Mahatma Gandhi’s kind of response could havebeen effective. During his Noakhali tour, with his ever-presentdeclaration of Universal Love, he had challenged the communalistleaders to show him where the Koran had enjoined the killing of peopleof other faiths. Could the RSS challenge the communalists the way theMahatma did?

One only wishes that the Mahatma had shown the same grit by standingsteadfastly with Maulana Azad and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in resistingPartition.

Hinduism’s unique teaching is: “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”Hinduism also teaches: “Love others as you do yourself.” “Love has thepower to heal.” The Biblical teaching, too, is Universal Love. TheKoran teaches Khuda’s Raham pervades the universe. Criticism by theway of pointer to the error is essential. But criticism withoutconcern for the welfare of the wrong-doer is of no avail.

Half-hearted Compromise is no Solution

IN its latest meet, the BJP’s National Executive has tried to make acompromise between the RSS’ clamour for Hindutva and many of the BJPleaders’ belated realisation that the Hindutva slogan alienates notonly the Muslims, Christians and large sections of the Dalits, butalso the secular “caste-Hindus”. L.K. Advani’s middle-path declarationthat the party would not accept “any narrow, bigoted, anti-Musliminterpretation of Hindutva” indicates it is unable to shed itsfascination for the word it has so long been pledged to. In fact, theBJP would not be able to shed it until the the RSS realises how, bysticking to this word, it is hampering national unity and alsodefeating its own cherished values. This tightrope walking by the BJPwill not have the healing touch. This will not unify the people.

Clearly discarding Hindutva and accepting Hindustaniyat will not meanany loss of face. This will rather show the courage to steer a changepropelled by the depth of patriotic fervour.

If the RSS and/or the BJP could drop Hindutva as its motto, it wouldbe able to challenge the Muslimist bigots more effectively. Like DrRafiq Zakaria and in one voice with all truly secular people, it willbe able to tell the bigoted clerics:

During the British rule, you accepted the replacements of the Koranicpunishments by those which the then rulers had imposed in their civiland criminal courts. At that time, you acquiesced in the banning ofthe stoning of the adulterous to death, though this ban violated theKoranic injunction. You paid interest on the loans taken from thebanks though it was prohibited by the Koran. Now, you raise a hue andcry about carrying out some essential reforms in Muslim Personal Laweven though some Muslim countries have already enacted them. Inprotest against the Supreme Court’s righteous verdict in the Shah Banocase, you got enacted a law of maintenance which has thrown manyMuslim women divorcees to the streets. ‘Triple talaq at one go’ isbarbaric and against the spirit of the Koran; still you cling to it.

After it drops the outmoded Hindutva slogan, it would be able to mockthe shariat enthusiasts in the manner of Akbar Allahabadi: “The Shaikhadvised his followers, why do you travel by train when you couldtravel on camel’s back?”

Writing on the Wall

MAYBE, all these pleas will fall flat in the RSS leadership’s ears. Inthat case, the RSS should read the writing on the wall: the RSS willbreak up or become moribund. Despite its claim of being a monolithwith no divergence of views among its members, the RSS will face agrave existential crisis if it does not change its tune in keepingwith the times. There are already sufficient indications. In the1980s—I forget the exact year—I was invited by Deendayal Research Institute,headed by Nanaji Deshmukh, to give a series of lectures on my ideas ofenvironment and development. Lala Hansraj Gupta was in the chair. WhenI came to say “Hinduism is no religion. It is a way of life”, I heardan exclamation in endorsement: “Exactly. Those who talk of ‘Hindus,Hindus’ but have no interest in the lives of Muslims are not genuineHindus.” The voice was Nanaji’s. I was pleasantly surprised becauseNanaji was a prominent RSS member and I did not expect this from anRSS leader of his stature. Later I had many discussions with him, incourse of which I asked him: “Why don’t you tell your opinions toBalasaheb Deoras?” He told me that he was writing down his viewpointsbut these would be published after his death. Presumably, he did notwant to annoy the RSS leadership for fear of their non-cooperation inhis other constructive activities at Gonda or Chitrakut.

I know some senior BJP leaders who would be happy if Hindutva isdropped as the guiding principle. How long can the RSS keep suchpeople together under the banner of Hindutva? The slogan of Hindutvadoes conjure up fear of “Hindu cultural domination” in the minds oftoday’s non-Hindus, even if Hindu Rashtra is ruled out. Rationalisinghas its limits.

If the RSS changes its archaic ideas and accepts Hindustaniyat as thereligio-confederal principle, it can play a much larger role on thenational horizon. During invasions by China and by Pakistan, itsvolunteers played a very useful role in mobilising the people againstthe invaders, and working as service providers to our military andinternal security forces. It also played a significant role inregulating traffic and maintaining law and order even-handedly. Inrecognition of this, the then Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri,invited the RSS leadership to be a member of the National SecurityCouncil. In times of violent attacks on the Sikhs following IndiraGandhi’s assassination, it did laudable work in giving shelter andsuccour to the Sikhs. Dr Hedgewar had links with Bengal’s legendaryrevolutionary leader, Trailokya Nath Chakrabarty also known as‘Maharaj’; and therefore, this nation’s hero, Subhas Chandra Bose, hadeven thought of utilising the RSS’ organisational skill in raising anationalist volunteer force. During Jayaprakash Narayan’s anti-corruption and anti-Emergency movements and Bihar flood relief, theRSS had earned fulsome praise from JP.

Will the RSS let all this goodwill to be besmirched or lost by itsdogmatism and obsolete ideas? It needs to realise that its Hindutvavaddoes stir up, among its unthinking followers—which is by far thelarger part—fanaticism, blind prejudices and hatred against all thosewho now refuse to see themselves as “Hindus”. If the RSS did notsuffer from the Nelson’s eye syndrome, it would have seen that a largesection of the Dalits and even the Sikhs, who were once the vanguardof saving the Hindus from forced conversion, do not now like to becounted as Hindus.

The author is one of the country’s earliest environ-mentalists and asocial philosopher.

The report of the High-Level Committee appointed by the Prime Ministerunder the chairmanship of Justice Rajindar Sachar, retired ChiefJustice of the Delhi High Court, to study the ‘Social, Economic andEducational Status of the Muslim Community of India’, has been asubject of wide discussion in the press, among parliamentarians andother politicians as well as in other informed sections of thesociety.

The seven-member Committee had as its members eminent personalitieslike Sayid Hamid, former Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh MuslimUniversity and currently Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, ProfT.K. Oommen, former Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and asociologist of world renown, among others. Dr. Abusaleh Shariff, ChiefEconomist, National Council of Applied Economic Research, who is notedfor his perceptive research on various issues of national concern, wasthe Member-Secretary. There was no woman member: surprising, as thecondition of women is very important for any survey of the socialscenario among the Muslims. And, the Committee has tried to look atthe predicament of the Muslim women in as good a manner as it could.

The Committee had several consultants from different disciplines andhad commissioned specialists on various aspects of the subject undercoverage to write papers for its use in its study of the complexissues.

The Committee collected data from the various Censuses, the NationalSample Survey Organisation (NSSO), banks and, of course, from theCentral and State Governments.

The members of the Committee visited different parts of the country toassess the grassroots situation and grasp the realities by experiencerather than merely with the help of statistics brought to their desksby investigators. The Committee tried to sift the perception ofmembers of the Muslim community (as well as of non-Muslims) andunderstand the nature and magnitude of the community’s grievances, tobe able to judge the veracity or otherwise of the expressions ofnegligence and deprivation.

Most of the grievances of the community are common knowledge and thosewho have access to the Urdu press in different parts of the countryare fully aware of the endless stories of ‘woes’ and ‘miseries’ of thecommunity. But a systematic study of these grievances had to be madeand the Sachar Committee ventured to do that. We shall deal with thegrievances briefly later but, first, a review of the findings of theSachar Committee in different areas of its concern.

II

It would be appropriate to begin a survey of the Sachar Committee’sfindings with the fundamental issue of education. The literacy ratefor Muslims in 2001 was, according to the Committee’s findings, farbelow the national average. The difference between the two rates wasgreater in urban areas than in rural areas. For women, too, the gapwas greater in the urban areas.

When compared to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes the growthin literacy for Muslims was lower than for the former. The femaleurban enrolment in literacy ratio for the SCs/STs was 40 per cent in1965 that rose to 83 per cent in 2001. The equivalent rate for Muslims—that was considerably higher in 1965 (52 per cent)—recorded a figureof 80 per cent, lower than the figure for the SCs / STs.

According to the Sachar Committee’s findings, 25 per cent of Muslimchildren in the 6-14 age-group either never went to school or elsedropped out at some stage.

The disparity in Graduate Attainment Rates between Muslims and othercategories has been widening since the 1970s in urban and rural areas.According to the Sachar Committee, only one out of 25 undergraduatestudents and one out of 50 post-graduate students in ‘premiercolleges’ are Muslims. The percentage of graduates in poor householdspursuing post-graduate studies is significantly lower for Muslims:Hindus General (29 per cent); SCs/STs (28 per cent); OBCs (23 percent); Muslims (16 per cent). The unemployment rate among Muslimgraduates is the highest among all Socio-Religious Categories (SRCs),poor as well as non-poor.

In the midst of the widespread discussion about the role of madrasasin the life of Muslims, it is interesting to note that only three percent of Muslim children go to madrasas.

Some figures of the Committee are very revealing, when the situationof OBCs is considered. In education upto matriculation, graduation andemployment in the formal sector all OBCs lag behind in terms of theall-India average. Muslim OBCs (that have been defined here a littlelater) fall below the Hindu OBCs in all categories. And, GeneralMuslims fare the worst being behind both Hindu and Muslim OBCs.

An important cause for the low level of attainment of Muslims ineducation is the dearth of facilities for teaching Urdu and othersubjects through the medium of Urdu (mother tongue) in lower classes,the Committee points out. It cites the better examples of Karnatakaand Maharashtra in this context. These two States are much betterequipped with Urdu medium schools at the elementary level. Karnatakahas the additional feature of concurrent facilities for English mediumas well in a good number of schools, the Committee points out.

In an indirect reference to the utility of reservation, the Committeesays that the SCs/STs have reaped advantages of targeted governmentand private efforts thereby pinpointing the importance of ‘affirmativeaction’.

Employment

According to the findings of the Sachar Committee, Muslims have aconsiderably lower representation in jobs in the government includingthose in the Public Sector Undertakings compared to other SRCs.According to these findings, in no State of the country the level ofMuslim employment is proportionate to their percentage in thepopulation.

It is pointed out that the situation of government jobs is the best inAndhra Pradesh where a “fairly close” representation (in proportion tothe population) has been achieved. Other States with a better pictureof representation are: Karnataka (8.5 per cent job share in apopulation proportion of 12.2 per cent); Gujarat (5.4 per cent against9.1 per cent); Tamil Nadu (3.2 per cent against 5.6 per cent).

According to an analysis, in all other States, the percentage ofMuslims in government employment is half of their populationproportion. The highest percentage figure of government employment forMuslims is in Assam (11.2 per cent) even though it is far less thanthe State’s Muslim population (30.9 per cent).

The most glaring cases of Muslims’ deprivation in government jobs arefound in the States of West Bengal and Kerala where, according tocommon perception, egalitarianism has been the cherished norm in allwalks of life. In West Bengal where almost 25 per cent populationpractises the Muslim faith, their share in government jobs is a paltry4.2 per cent. In Kerala the Muslim representation in government jobsis 10.4 per cent, a figure that is short of half of their populationpercentage. In Bihar and UP the percentages of Muslims in governmentjobs are found to be less than a third of their populationpercentages. Those governing these States need to monitor theiractions to bring the situation in conformity with their professedobjectives and claims.

There are some factors that need to be considered in view of the lowemployment figures for Muslims on an all-India basis. The SacharCommittee observes that the low aggregate work participation ratiosfor Muslims are ‘essentially’ due to the much lower participation ineconomic activity by the women of the community. Also, a large numberof Muslim women who are engaged in work do so from their homes ratherthan in offices or factories. Their figure in this regard is 70 percent compared to the general figure of 51 per cent

There is a high share of Muslim workers in self-employment activity,especially in urban areas and in the case of women, the Committeepoints out. Whether this trend is due to compulsion or their non-expectation for jobs in the government or non-government formalsector, or due to their inclination for certain types of work that aredone best under a self-employment scheme, would be an importantsubject for study. The fact has to be considered that Muslims inregular jobs in urban areas are much lower in numbers compared to eventhe SCs/STs. And, surprisingly, the Muslim regular workers get lowerdaily earnings (salary) in public and private jobs compared to othersocio-religious categories, as the Committee points out.

The point that needs special notice is that, according to theCommittee’s findings, Muslim participation in professional andmanagement cadres is quite low. Their participation in security-related activities (for example, in the Police services) isconsiderably lower than their population share (four per centoverall).

In the context of employment of Muslims at the level of the CentralGovernment, the Committee’s findings are very revealing. In the CivilServices, Muslims are only three per cent in IAS, 1.8 per cent in IFSand four per cent in IPS. (While the figures are shockingly lowcompared to the population percentage, the fact also needs to beconsidered that there were only 4.7 per cent Muslims among thecandidates at the Civil Services examinations in 2003-04. The figurewould be almost identical for other years.)

In the Railways, 4.5 per cent are Muslims and, significantly, ‘almostall’ (98.7 per cent) are in low level positions. Are you listening,Laloo Prasad Yadav?

Figures for other Departments are: Education 6.5 per cent, Home 7.3per cent, Police Constables (for which no special educationalqualifications are required) six per cent.

Also to be considered is the finding that in the recent recruitmentsby State Public Service Commissions, the employment of Muslims hasbeen as low as 2.1 per cent.

Minorities other than Muslims are not placed as delicately as theMuslims. According to the Committee’s findings, 11 per cent of Group Ajobs are with minorities other than Muslims. Deprivation of Muslims inthe State judical set-up seems to be among the most worrying aspectsof their overall backwardness.

The data collected by the Committee in this sector are about alllevels of the officers and employees: Advocate Generals, District andSessions Judges, Additional District and Sessions Judges, ChiefJudicial Magistrates, Principal Judges, Munsifs, Public Prosecutors,and Group A, B, C and D employees. The overall Muslim presence of 7.8per cent in the area of judiciary in 12 States with high concentrationof Muslim population is considered very low by experts.

To come back to an old theme, in West Bengal with a Muslim populationof over 25 per cent, the figure of Muslims in ‘key positions’ in thejudiciary is only five per cent. In Assam with a Muslim population of30.9 per cent, this figure is 9.4 per cent. Surprisingly, in Jammu andKashmir (where the Muslim population is 66.97 per cent), thecommunity’s share in the State judiciary is only 48.3 per cent. AndhraPradesh once again scores over other States in terms of equitable andeven more than equitable sharing of jobs: Muslims have a share of 12.4per cent in the State judiciary against a population share of 9.2 percent.

Experts feel that for an inclusive democracy, an equitable share forall sections of the society in the judiciary is essential: it createsgreater public confidence in the judicial process. It would be usefulto survey the situation in this regard in some other developing anddeveloped countries to be able to arrive at some remedial measures forthis crucial sector of decision-making.

Health and Population

Along with education and employment, health and population welfare arethe other areas that have to be assessed for estimating attainments ofany society. The Sachar Committee has done this exercise in acomprehensive manner.

First, the overall population picture: According to the 2001 Census,the Muslim population of India was 138 million (13.4 per cent of thetotal population). This figure is estimated to have crossed the 150million mark in 2006. According to the estimate cited by theCommittee, the share of the Muslim population would rise ‘somewhat’and stabilise at just below 19 per cent in the next four decades (320million Muslims in a total population of 1.7 billion). There are manyareas where the Muslim population is 50 per cent or more; and in nineout of 593 districts (Lakshadweep and eight districts of Jammu andKashmir) the Muslim population is over 75 per cent.

On the positive side, the period 1991-2001 showed a decline in thegrowth rate of Muslims in most States. According to the Committee’sfindings, the Muslim population shows an increasingly better sex ratiocompared to other Socio-Religious Categories. Infant mortality amongMuslims is slightly lower than the average. (It is beyond theCommittee’s understanding how Muslims should have a child survivaladvantage despite lower levels of female schooling and economicstatus.) Life expectancy in the community is slightly higher (by oneyear) than the average, and this should again surprise many.

The Committee’s finding is important that the Muslim child has asignificantly greater risk of being underweight or stunted than is thecase with other Socio-Religious Categories: the risk of malnutritionis also ‘slightly higher’ for Muslim children than for ‘Other Hindu’children. This again seems to be a contradiction vis-à-vis thereported child survival rate.

Economy

Related to the existing economic condition of Muslims is the issue ofproviding legitimate support by state and private agencies for themembers of the community to improve their position. One would like toexamine the situation with regard to trends in the support system ofexisting instruments. Banks have been seen as an important source ofcredit to support citizens’ economic and commercial ventures. Thepicture regarding bank loans to members of the minority is not bright,according to the findings of the Sachar Committee. It says that theshare of Muslims in ‘amounts outstanding’ is only 4.7 per cent. Thisfigure is 6.5 per cent in the case of other minorities. Further, on anaverage the amount outstanding per account for Muslims is about halfthat of the other minorities and one-third of ‘others’.

The pity is that, according to the report, many areas of Muslimconcentration have been marked by many banks as ‘negative’ or ‘red’zones where giving loans is not advisable. Something would, indeed,have to be done to put an end to such blanket bans, particularly inview of the Committee’s finding that very large numbers of Muslims areengaged in self-employment ventures.

The Reserve Bank of India’s efforts at banking and credit facilitiesunder the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme for the welfare ofminorities have, according to the Committee’s findings, mainlybenefited minorities other than Muslims, thus “marginalising Muslims”.

Apart from the formal banking sector there are two other institutionsthat are meant to extend loans to the disadvantaged for economicventures: the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation(NMDFC) and National Backward Classes Finance and DevelopmentCorporation (NBCFDC). For loans from the NMDFC, one has to obtain aguarantee from the concerned State Government. According to theCommittee, this is the biggest hurdle in the processing of loanapplications. And members of minority communities are very adverselyaffected due to this factor.

Poverty Factor

The Committee has found that substantially large proportion of Muslimhouseholds in urban areas are in the less than Rs 500 expenditurebracket. According to calculations mentioned in the Committee’sreport, using the Head Count Ratio (HCR), overall 22.7 per cent ofIndia’s population was poor in 2004-05. In absolute numbers, thisamounts to over 251 million people spread across India. The SCs/STstogether are the most poor with an HCR of 35 per cent followed byMuslims who record the second highest incidence of poverty with 31 percent people below the poverty line. The H(indu)-General is the leastpoor category with an HCR of only 8.7 per cent and the OBCs hold theintermediary level HCR of 21 per cent, which is also close to the all-India average.

The Committee has observed that the inequality is higher in urbanareas compared to rural areas in most States. It says that povertyamong Muslims is the highest in urban areas with an HCR of 38.4 percent. Significantly, the fall in poverty for Muslims, according to thedata provided to the Committee, has been “only modest during thedecade 1993-94 to 2004-05 in urban areas, whereas the decline in ruralareas has been substantial”. Poverty leads to neglect, or the otherway round: the Committee found a “significant inverse association”between the proportion of Muslim population and educational and otherinfrastructure in small villages. Areas of Muslim concentration are,somehow, not well served with pucca approach roads and local busstops.

An analysis by the Committee showed a fall in the availability ofmedical facilities with the rise in the proportion of Muslims,especially in larger villages. A similar but sharper pattern can beseen with respect to post/telegraph offices.

Affirmative Action

Under the existing constitutional provisions, affirmative action inthe form of reservation cannot be possible for the entire Muslimcommunity even though, according to the findings of the SacharCommittee, the entire community has been left behind in terms ofeducation, employment and economic status. A way can be found to lifta significant segment of the community’s population if socialstratification is defined and officially accepted within the Muslimcommunity. It could be done in case of Hindus, and subsequently forMazhabi Sikhs and neo-Buddhists in terms of caste demarcation. But itwould not be easy to have official acceptance of the caste principle.The resistance against acceptance of social stratification on castelines among Muslims would come largely from the clerics and otherorthodox sections of the Muslim community itself which would beadamant in its insistence that caste does not exist within thecommunity. This, even though the fact is that, whether one likes it ornot, the Muslim community is divided with caste demarcations almost onthe lines of the Hindus. A via media has to be found for a clearlydefined backward class like the OBCs among the majority community.

The Sachar Committee has talked of the issue of social stratificationamong Muslims. It points out that the 1901 Census had listed 133social groups, “wholly or partially Muslim”, in India. Thisclassification thus recognised the fact of social stratification inthe community. The Committee has identified different groups ofMuslims based on studies by sociologists. The community, according tothese studies, as mentioned by the Committee, is placed into

two broad categories , namely, ashraf and ajlaf. The former, meaning‘noble’ (emphasis added), includes all Muslims of foreign blood andconverts from higher castes. While ajlaf, meaning ‘degraded’ (emphasisadded) or ‘unholy’, embraces the ‘ritually clean’ occupational groupsand low ranking converts. In Bihar, UP, Bengal, Sayyads, Sheikhs,Moghuls and Pathans constitute the ashrafs, The ajlafs are carpenters,artisans, painters, graziers, tanners, milkmen, etc. According to theCensus of 1901, the ajlaf category includes “the various classes ofconverts who are known as Nao Muslim in Bihar and Nasya in Bengal. Italso includes various functional groups such as that of Jolaha orweaver, Dhunia or cotton carder, Kulu or oil presser, Kunjra orvegetable seller, Hajjam or barber, Darzi or tailor, and the like.”The 1901 Census also recorded the presence of a third category calledArzal: “It consists of the very lowest castes, such as Halalkhor,Lalbegi, Abdal and Bedia.” The Committee has taken note of the factthat the Presidential Order (1950), officially known as Constitutional(Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, restricts the Scheduled Caste statusonly to Hindu groups having “unclean” occupations. Their non-Hinduequivalents have been bracketed with the “middle caste converts” anddeclared OBCs.

The Committee has noted that at least 82 different social groups amongMuslims were declared OBCs by the Mandal Commission (1980). Owing tothis declaration many Muslim social groups got reservation indifferent parts of the country under the Backward Classes category.Only two States, Kerala and Karnataka, have provided reservation tothe State’s entire Muslim population (minus the creamy layer). Theroots of this policy have to be traced to the colonial days.

In Karnataka (the erstwhile princely state of Mysore), affirmativeaction started in 1874 (with 80 per cent posts in the PoliceDepartment having been reserved for non-Brahmins, Muslims and IndianChristians). In Karnataka today, all Muslims with income of less thanRs 2 lakhs per annum enjoy four per cent reservation in jobs andadmission to institutions in the category of ‘More Backwards’. InKerala Muslims enjoy 12 per cent reservation, with some othercommunities and social groups too being provided reservation.

Tamil Nadu, which had a tradition of reservation to Muslims since1872, withdrew such reservation following independence. Currently eventhough there is no reservation in the State on the basis of religion,nearly 95 per cent Muslims have been provided reservation as BackwardClasses, according to the data provided by the State Government to theSachar Committee. Significantly enough, reservations in Tamil Nadustand at 69 per cent, much above the limit of 50 per cent fixed by theSupreme Court. Looking at the state of public employment for OBCs theCommittee found that unemployment rates were the highest among MuslimOBCs when compared to Hindu OBCs and Muslims General. In the formalsector (government/PSUs), the share of Muslim OBCs was much lower thanthose of Hindu OBCs and Muslims General.

At the workers’ level, the Committee estimated that out of everyhundred workers about eleven were Hindu OBCs, three were MuslimsGeneral and only one was a Muslim OBC.

The Committee had divided public employment into six ‘agencies’ of theCentral Government including PSUs and universities. It found that theHindu OBCs were under-represented. But their under-representation wasless than that of Muslim OBCs in five out of the six agencies, lessthan that of Muslims General in three out of the six agencies. In theState services the Committee found that Muslim OBCs had a better shareat the Group A level, but their presence was insignificant at otherlevels.

In the context of Muslim OBCs, the Committee concluded that theabysmally low representation of Muslim OBCs suggests that the benefitsof entitlements meant for the Backward Classes are yet to reach them.The Committee also concluded that “the conditions of Muslims Generalare also lower than the Hindu-OBCs who have the benefits ofreservations”.

III

While the Sachar Committee has done a laudable job of assembling ahuge body of data and presenting it in an easily digestible manner, ithas not been as meticulous in formulating its recommendations. Perhapsit was due to the fatigue after an enormous amount of legwork on anational scale and the subsequent analysis of the compiled informationthat its members had to do in about 15 months of actual work, coupledwith the desire of submitting its report rather urgently and the factthat much of the information about its findings had already beenaccessed by a section of the press. In view of the mind-bogglingfindings and the very sensitive nature of the ground it was traversinga very comprehensive matrix of recommendations should have beenpresented by an able and competent panel blending experience and freshthinking. Unfortunately this could not be achieved by the Committee.The most important recommendations of the Committee can be summarisedas under:

• Creation of a National Data Bank (NDB) where relevant data aboutdifferent socio-religious communities could be stored to facilitateany study and subsequent action.

• Setting up of an autonomous Assessment and Monitoring Authority(AMA) for a regular audit of the benefits of different programmes ofthe government reaching the concerned communities or groups.

• Establishing an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to examine andanalyse the grievances of deprived groups, the inspirationunderstandably for it coming from the Race Relations Act, 1976 of theUnited Kingdom that finds mention in the Committee’s recommendation.

• Exploring the idea of introducing some incentives to a ‘DiversityIndex’ in the realms of education, government, and private employmentand housing programmes. Special mention has been made of a possibleprogramme of incentives to colleges and institutions under theUniversity Grants Commission linked to diversity in the studentpopulation.

• Evolving some sort of a ‘nomination’ procedure for enhancing thelevels of inclusiveness in governance.

• Certain measures like removal of anomalies in ReservedConstituencies for General Elections against complaints of declaringMuslim concentration areas as SC/ST reserved seats.

• Institutionalising evaluation procedures for textbooks, alternateadmission criteria in regular universities and autonomous colleges;cost friendly reasonable hostel facilities for minority students as apriority; making teacher training oriented to ideals of pluralism;state-run Urdu medium schools for primary education in mother tongue;ensuring appointment of experts from minority community on interviewpanels and boards; linking madrasas with higher secondary schoolsfacilitating shift of students who might opt for a mainstreameducation system after a few years; recognition of degrees frommadrasas for competitive examinations (a recommendation hard to findacceptance in any section of concerned quarters); on the economicfront, provision of financial and other support to initiatives builtaround occupations where Muslims are concentrated and that have growthpotential.

The above suggestions have given considerable food for thought withregard to the panacea for deprivation of the Muslim community invarious spheres. But a more comprehensive and concrete programmeshould have been suggested by the Committee.

This task could have been performed best by the able members of thispanel who had travelled far and wide and acquainted themselves withthe grassroots realities rather than leaving it for another possiblecommittee for a start from a scratch. This was essential to get actioninitiated on the basis of its findings instead of letting this venturetoo meet the fate of the earlier Gopal Singh Committee over twodecades ago that had similar findings (although it had a narrowercoverage than the Sachar Committee). Now it is for the Prime Ministerand his government to decide the future course of action to remedy thesituation regarding the travails of the Muslim community.

IV

Much of the Sachar Committee’s endeavour was in pursuance of theperception among Muslims of utter neglect and apathy, and evensuspicion, towards the Muslim community on the part of governmentalagencies—right or wrong! An oft-repeated remark by many members of thecommunity was that Muslims carried a double burden of being labelledas ‘anti-national’ and as being ‘appeased’ at the same time. Or,whenever any act of violence or terror occurs Muslim boys are pickedup by the police. “Every bearded man is considered an ISI agent,” theCommittee has quoted someone as saying. It was also pointed out that“social boycott of Muslims in certain parts of the country have forcedthem to migrate from places where they lived for centuries.”

The Committee has also observed that identification of Urdu as aMuslim language and its politicisation has complicated matters. Aworrying observation is that Muslims do not see education asnecessarily translating into formal employment. And, many a timemadrasas are the only educational option for Muslims.

On the economic front, the Committee observes that liberalisation ofthe economy has resulted in displacement of Muslims from theirtraditional occupations, thus depriving them of their livelihood.

The Committee has reported that there were many complaints of Muslims’names missing from electoral rolls. It could not look into theveracity or otherwise of this complaint. But what the Committee foundin case of complaints that a number of Muslim concentration Assemblyconstituencies are declared as ‘reserved’ seats for the SCs(deliberately?) should certainly worry those involved with the work ofdelimitation of constituencies. Its analysis of reservedconstituencies for SCs in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal provedthat there was truth in the allegation of the members of the minoritycommunity in this regard.

With the perception of Muslims not being quite favourable to officialagencies, the revelation of the findings of the Sachar Committee withregard to over-representation of the community in the country’sprisons, reported (before the submission of its report to the PrimeMinister) by The Indian Express, in its series of reports entitled‘The Missing Muslim’, created a sensation. The Urdu press was on fireand questions were asked why prisons were the only place where Muslimswere over-represented compared to all other communities and in somecases their representation being much higher than their populationproportion.

In Maharashtra, the percentage of Muslim jail inmates in allcategories was found to be way above their share in the population(share in population: 10.6 per cent; share in prison inmates: 17.5 percent). In Gujarat the position was: share in population: 9.06 percent; share in jail inmates: over 25 per cent). The situation was onsimilar lines in other States too although the jail inmate share mightnot be as bad in other States as in the States mentioned above.

Following the submission of the report to the Prime Minister, TheIndian Express reported that the data with regard to prisons wereedited out of the Sachar report, following the concern expressed onthese figures in different quarters. Some observers felt that theprison figures should not have been omitted, as they would have givena clear picture of some of the Muslim grievances with regard to themore sensitive issues.

The remedy for the travails of the Muslim community can be foundlargely by the community’s bolder initiatives in the field ofeducation that would empower them as nothing else would.

The government, on its part, seems to be ready for whatever remedialmeasures can be adopted by its different agencies. The recentinitiative taken by the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, K. RehmanKhan, to arrive at a consensus for action on an all-party basis,through a conclave of Muslim MPs (including some from the BharatiyaJanata Party, which has been very critical of the very appointment ofthe Sachar Committee), seems to be a significant one. One only hopesthat such an initiative would have the support of the government andsome concrete steps would be taken without much delay.

James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden, editors. India: A Country Study.Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1995.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank individuals in various agencies of theIndian and United States governments and private institutions who gavetheir time, research materials, and special knowledge to provideinformation and perspective. These individuals include Hardeep Puri,Joint Secretary (America) of the Ministry of External Affairs;Madhukar Gupta, Joint Secretary (Kashmir) of the Ministry of HomeAffairs; Bimla Bhalla, Director General of Advertising and VisualPublications, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; Amulya RatnaNanda, Registrar General of India; Ashok Jain, director of theNational Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies; T.Vishwanthan, director of the Indian National Scientific DocumentationCentre; G.P. Phondke, director of the Publications and InformationDirectorate of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research; AirCommander Jasjit Singh, director of the Institute for Defence Studiesand Analyses; G. Madhavan, deputy executive secretary of the IndianAcademy of Sciences; Sivaraj Ramaseshan, distinguished emeritusprofessor, Raman Research Institute; H.S. Nagaraja, public relationsofficer of the Indian Institute of Science; Virendra Singh, directorof the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; Bhabani Sen Gupta ofthe Centre for Policy Research; Pradeep Mehendiratta, Vice Presidentand Executive Director, Indian Institute of American Studies; andRichard J. Crites, Chat Blakeman, Peter L.M. Heydemann, and MarciaS.B. Bernicat of the United States Embassy in New Delhi. Specialthanks go to Lygia M. Ballantyne, director, and Alice Kniskern, deputydirector, and the staff of the Library of Congress New Delhi FieldOffice, particularly Atish Chatterjee, for supplying bounteous amountsof valuable research materials on India and arranging interviews ofIndian government officials.

Appreciation is also extended to Ralph K. Benesch, who formerlyoversaw the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program for the Departmentof the Army, and to the desk officers in the Department of State andthe Department of the Army who reviewed the chapters. Thanks also areoffered to William A. Blanpied, Mavis Bowen, Ainslie T. Embree, JeromeJacobson, Suzanne Hanchett, Barbara Leitch LePoer, Owen M. Lynch, andSunalini Nayudu, who either assisted with substantive information orread parts of the manuscript or did both.

The authors also wish to thank those who contributed directly to thepreparation of the manuscript. They include Sandra W. Meditz, whoreviewed all textual and graphic materials, served as liaison with theDepartment of the Army, and provided numerous substantive andtechnical contributions; Sheila Ross, who edited the chapters; AndreaT. Merrill, who edited the tables and figures; Marilyn Majeska, whosupervised editing and managed production; Alberta Jones King, whoassisted with research, making wordprocessing corrections to variousversions of the manuscript, and proofreading; Barbara Edgerton andIzella Watson, who performed the final wordprocessing; Marla D.Woodson, who assisted with proofreading; and Janie L. Gilchrist, DavidP. Cabitto, Barbara Edgerton, and Izella Watson, who prepared thecamera-ready copy. Catherine Schwartzstein performed the finalprepublication editorial review, and Joan C. Cook compiled the index.

Graphics support was provided by David P. Cabitto, who oversaw theproduction of maps and graphics and, with the assistance of WayneHorne, designed the cover and the illustrations on the chapter titlepages; and Harriet Blood and Maryland Mapping and Graphics, whoassisted in the preparation of the maps and charts. Thanks also go toGary L. Fitzpatrick and Christine M. Anderson, of the Library ofCongress Geography and Map Division, for assistance in preparing earlymap drafts. A very special thank you goes to Janice L. Hyde, who didthe research on and selection of cover and title-page illustrationsand photographs, translated some of the photograph captions andtextual references, and helped the editors on numerous matters ofsubstance and analysis. Shantha S. Murthy of the Library of CongressSerial Record Division provided Indian language assistance. ClarenceMaloney helped identify the subjects of some of the photographs.

Finally the authors acknowledge the generosity of individ-uals andpublic and private organizations who allowed their photographs to beused in this study. They have been acknowledged in the illustrationcaptions.

http://countrystudies.us/india/1.htm

Preface

This edition supersedes the fourth edition of India: A Country Study ,published in 1985 under the editorship of Richard F. Nyrop. The newedition provides updated information on the world's second mostpopulous and fastest-growing nation. Although much of India'straditional behavior and organizational dynamics reported in 1985 haveremained the same, internal and regional events have continued toshape Indian domestic and international policies.

To the extent possible, place-names used in the text conform to theUnited States Board on Geographic Names, but equal weight has beengiven to spellings provided by the official Survey of India.Measurements are given in the metric system.

The body of the text reflects information available as of September 1,1995. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated.The Bibliography lists published sources thought to be particularlyhelpful to the reader.

http://countrystudies.us/india/2.htm

History

THOSE "WHO WEAR COTTON CLOTHES, use the decimal system, enjoy thetaste of [curried] chicken, play chess, or roll dice, and seek peaceof mind or tranquility through meditation," writes historian StanleyWolpert, "are indebted to India." India's deep-rooted civilization mayappear exotic or even inscrutable to casual foreign observers, but aperceptive individual can see its evolution, shaped by a wide range offactors: extreme climatic conditions, a bewildering diversity ofpeople, a host of competing political overlords (both local andoutsiders), enduring religious and philosophical beliefs, and complexlinguistic and literary developments that led to the flowering ofregional and pan-Indian culture during the last three millennia. Theinterplay among a variety of political and socioeconomic forces hascreated a complex amalgam of cultures that continue amidst conflict,compromise, and adaptation. "Wherever we turn," says Wolpert, "wefind . . . palaces, temples, mosques, Victorian railroad stations,Buddhist stupas, Mauryan pillars; each century has its uniquetestaments, often standing incongruously close to ruins of anotherera, sometimes juxtaposed one atop another, much like the ruins ofRome, or Bath."

India's "great cycle of history," as Professor Hugh Tinker put it,entails repeating themes that continue to add complexity and diversityto the cultural matrix. Throughout its history, India has undergoneinnumerable episodes involving military conquests and integration,cultural infusion and assimilation, political unification andfragmentation, religious toleration and conflict, and communal harmonyand violence. A few other regions in the world also can claim such avast and differentiated historical experience, but Indian civilizationseems to have endured the trials of time the longest. India has provenits remarkable resilience and its innate ability to reconcile opposingelements from many indigenous and foreign cultures. Unlike the West,where modern political developments and industrialization have createda more secular worldview with redefined roles and values forindividuals and families, India remains largely a traditional society,in which change seems only superficial. Although India is the world'slargest democracy and the seventh-most industrialized country in theworld, the underpinnings of India's civilization stem primarily fromits own social structure, religious beliefs, philosophical outlook,and cultural values. The continuity of those time-honed traditionalways of life has provided unique and fascinating patterns in thetapestry of contemporary Indian civilization.

Coasts and BordersRiversClimateEarthquakesPopulationPopulation ProjectionsPopulation and Family Planning PolicyHealth Conditionshttp://countrystudies.us/india/35.htmHealth CareEducationhttp://countrystudies.us/india/37.htm

Religion

The Vedas and Polytheismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/39.htmKarma and LiberationJainismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/41.htmBuddhismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/42.htmThe Worship of Personal Godshttp://countrystudies.us/india/43.htmVishnuShivaBrahma and the Hindu TrinityThe Goddesshttp://countrystudies.us/india/47.htmLocal Deitieshttp://countrystudies.us/india/48.htmThe Ceremonies of HinduismDomestic WorshipLife-Cycle RitualsTemplesPilgrimageFestivalsIslamhttp://countrystudies.us/india/55.htmSikhismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/56.htmTribal Religionshttp://countrystudies.us/india/57.htmChristianityhttp://countrystudies.us/india/58.htmZoroastrianismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/59.htmJudaismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/60.htmModern Changes in Religionhttp://countrystudies.us/india/61.htm

Language, Ethnicity, and Regionalism

Linguistic RelationsDiversity, Use, and PolicyLanguages of IndiaHindi and EnglishHindiEnglishLinguistic StatesThe Social Context of Languagehttp://countrystudies.us/india/69.htmTribeshttp://countrystudies.us/india/70.htmJews and Parsishttp://countrystudies.us/india/71.htmPortuguesehttp://countrystudies.us/india/72.htmAnglo-Indianshttp://countrystudies.us/india/73.htmAfricanshttp://countrystudies.us/india/74.htmRegionalismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/75.htmTelangana Movement

Themes in Indian SocietyFamilyVeiling and the Seclusion of WomenLife PassagesChildren and ChildhoodMarriageAdulthoodDeath and BeyondCaste and ClassThe Village CommunityUrban Life

The Economy

Structure of the EconomyThe Role of GovernmentLaborIndustryGovernment PoliciesManufacturingEnergyMining and QuarryingTourismScience and TechnologyAgricultureCropsThe Green RevolutionLivestock and PoultryForestryFishing

Government and Politics

The ConstitutionPoliticsThe CongressOpposition PartiesBharatiya Janata Party and the Rise of Hindu Nationalismhttp://countrystudies.us/india/113.htmCommunist PartiesRegional PartiesCaste-Based Partieshttp://countrystudies.us/india/116.htmPunjab and Jammu and Kashmirhttp://countrystudies.us/india/117.htmHindu-Muslim Tensionshttp://countrystudies.us/india/118.htmCorruptionhttp://countrystudies.us/india/119.htmThe MediaThe Rise of Civil Society

Dasgupta, A. "Indian Merchants and the Trade in the Indian Ocean."Pages 407-33 in Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib, eds., TheCambridge Economic History of India, 1: c.1200-c.1750. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Datta, V.N. Sati: Widow Burning in India. New Delhi: Manohar, 1990.

Davies, C. Collin. An Historical Atlas of the Indian Peninsula.London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

Derrett, J. Duncan. Religion, Law, and the State in India. London:Faber, 1968.

Desai, Morarji. The Story of My Life. 3 vols. New Delhi: Pergamon,1979.

Frykenberg, Robert E. Guntur District 1788-1848: A History of LocalInfluence and Central Authority in South India. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1965.

Frykenberg, Robert E. "The Impact of Conversion and Social Reform uponSociety in South India During the Late Company Period: QuestionsConcerning Hindu-Christian Encounters, with Special Reference toTinnevelly." Pages 187-243 in C.H. Philips and Mary Doreen Wainwright,eds., Indian Society and the Beginnings of Modernization, c.1830-1850. London: School of Oriental and Arican Studies, 1976.

Marshall, John Hubert. Taxila: An Illustrated Account of theArchaeological Excavations Carried Out at Taxila under the Orders ofthe Government of India Between the Years, 1913 and 1934. 3 vols.Varanasi: Bhartiya, 1975.

Richards, J.F. "The Islamic Frontier in the East: Expansion into SouthAsia," South Asia [Nedlands, Australia], No. 4, October 1974, 91-109.

Richards, John F. The New Cambridge History of India, II.5: The MughalEmpire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Rizvi, S.A.A. The Wonder That Was India, 2: A Survey of the Historyand Culture of the Indian Sub-Continent from the Coming of the Muslimsto the British Conquest, 1200-1700. London: Sidgwick and Jackson,1987.

Who Are the Guilty? Report of a Joint Inquiry into the Causes andImpact of the Riots in Delhi from 31 October to 10 November, 1984. 2ded. New Delhi: People's Union for Democratic Rights and People's Unionfor Civil Liberties, 1984.

Woodruff, Philip (pseud.). The Men Who Ruled India, 2: The Founders.London: Cape, 1963.

Zimmer, Heinrich. The Art of Indian Asia. New York: Pantheon, 1955.

Enter your search terms Submit search formWeb countrystudies.us

http://countrystudies.us/india/137.htm

FOCUS GROUP ASIAN SUBCONTINENT:

Muslim-Hindu Relations in India

Beside being one of the most populous nations in the world, India isalso one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse. Islam andHinduism are the main religions in India, however, and the two havehad a very long and sometimes violent coexistence. After the Britishleft India in 1947, in particular, the continent split into thenations of the Muslim Pakistan and a majority-Hindu India in a violentpartition which cost the lives of approximately one million people anddislocation of no fewer than eleven million.

Since 1947 India and Pakistan have fought three wars with each othersince then; and violence between Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims in Indiaitself have also been bitter and violent. The secular regime indemocratic India that Mahatmas Gandhi help establish in 1947 professesto be one country for all Indians, no matter their religion; butenmity between religions continues to plague India. The tide of Hinducommunalism continues to roll across the Indian subcontinent, and witha literacy rate of just 30% and horrific poverty India's democracyfaces strong challenges in the future. Combine that with theconflicts in Kashmir with Pakistan and the proliferation of nuclearweapons in the area, and the situation is particularly dangerous.

Questions to keep in mind: What historical events in historycontribute to present day bad feelings between Muslims and Hindus onthe Asian subcontinent? What are the wars, conflicts, rivalries thatMuslims and Hindus have suffered between them? What was the influenceof the life and death of Mohandas Gandhi? How many Muslims are therecompared to Hindus and Sikhs in present day India? What conflictshave arisen on sites considered "holy" by both Muslims and Hindus?

RESOURCES:

At Yahoo! check out the following categories: Indian history ingeneral, India by time period, and Mohandas Gandhi. Also check outthis excellent CNN perspective on India and Pakistan: 50 Years ofIndependence. This is also an excellent article about Indian and therecent elections there.

Leaders of a Hindu nationalist party are demanding the right to formIndia's next government after nearly complete election returns showthe party winning the most seats in the parliament. But conflictingclaims have led to bitterness and confusion. Fred de Sam Lazaro hasthis report on the party's rise to power.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Ramesh Chand Thomar has served in India'sparliament since 1991, representing a semi-rural district in theNorthern, Uttar Pradesh province. He began this campaign day with astop at a Hindu temple, part of a routine that emphasizes the centraltheme of his BJP or India People's Party. Called Hindutva, the sloganhas few specifics but declares India "a nation of Hindu values." Heinsists this does not violate the secular democratic tradition ofMahatma Gandhi, on which the nation was founded. Thomar says it simplycalls on Indians to be patriotic.

RAMESH CHAND THOMAR: Indian must think first of India, the developmentof India, the prosperity of India, we like that. The people are livinghere and they are thinking about other countries.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The BJP's critics say that's code language aimedat India's Muslim minority. They are often accused of being loyal toPakistan, India's Islamic neighbor and adversary in three wars,according to Syed Shahabuddin, a former member of parliament andpublisher of a journal called Muslim India.

SYED SHAHABUDDIN, Publisher, Muslim India: This is precisely theirmethod of trying to undo, or rather to do a minority out of its dueshare. Point one, look, he's the enemy, he is the other, he is theenemy, he is the adversary, he's with them; he's the fifth columnist.He's at the beck and call of Pakistan. And Pakistan, of course, youknow, is always leaving difficult responsibilities against us. Andthis is how you create a miasma of fear, and that is how you createdistrust. That is how you inject poison into the body politic of thiscountry, and that is how you create an atmosphere in which any amountof violence can take place.

Religious tensions become political issues.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Critics blame the BJP for trying to reignitereligious tensions that date back centuries. In the early 1990's, theparty led a campaign to remove a 16th century mosque, called BabriMasjid, and replace it with a Hindu temple. They claimed India'sMuslim conquerors built it in a sacred spot; the birthplace of theHindu God Rama. Murali Manohar Joshi, a BJP leader, explained thecampaign to foreign reporters.

MURALI MANOHAR JOSHI: If Hitler would have been victorious in thesecond world war and there would have been a statue of Hitler inTrafalgar Square, and in 1990 the Britishers would have been liberatedfrom Hitler's yoke, what would they have done to that statue ofHitler?

The ruling party faces voter resentment.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In 1992, rioters stormed the mosque called BabriMasjid and razed it. The incident sparked violent clashes that claimeddozens of Hindu and Muslim lives, and for a while, it seemed toalienate many voters from the BJP, but political observers say it alsohurt the ruling Congress Party government, which was criticized fornot cracking down on the rioters. At the same time, the Congressgovernment, which had ruled India almost uninterrupted for fourdecades, began to face increasing voter resentment for policies thatfailed to deliver even basic amenities. It's frustration that's stillvery much in evidence.

MAN: (speaking through interpreter) Take a look at the condition ofour village. Do you see any water taps? We have to go two kilometersto get water, and we still get water from an open well.

TEACHER: (speaking through interpreter) The minister came here, hepromised to expand this school. We're still waiting. We only go to thefifth grade. I'd love to see kids go to the eighth.

SECOND MAN: (speaking through interpreter) When it comes time for ourvotes, they say they'll do this, they'll do that, in the end theydon't do anything.

THIRD MAN: (speaking through interpreter) The Congress Party has beenin power for a long time. They haven't done anything for the poor, thelower castes.

The Congress Party faces allegations of corruption.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Perhaps the biggest reason for the CongressParty's fall from grace were allegations of widespread corruption.It's an issue the BJP has seized. A BJP promise to clean up politicshas struck a responsive chord, even among some Congress Party members,like Colonel Ram Singh.

COLONEL RAM SINGH: I really got so disgusted. Every minister, barringfour or five of us, there is about 65, every minister was looting thecountry literally with both hands, and it was shameful.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Singh, who ran for parliament this time as a BJPcandidate, believes his adopted party is divorcing itself from itsextremist past.

COLONEL RAM SINGH: I think that is gradually being removed. I mean, mytotal outlook has always been, and will always be that every religionshould have equal place, equal rights, and they should be nopersecution of anybody on religious grounds.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Singh describes himself as a moderating force inthe BJP and the party has gone out of its way to tone down itsHindutva rhetoric, according to H. K. Dua, editor of the Times ofIndia.

H. K. DUA, Editor, The Times of India: They are trying to project morea centrist party, keen to do the business of the state, taking theothers along, than the kind of image they had tried to projectearlier. Possibly they are seeing it's politically necessary. Theywon't be able to come to power if they are taking an extreme position.So there is a definite attempt to demarcate themselves from the old--the old Hindu image. But they're doing it softly, lest they may losetheir old constituency.

RAMESH THOMAR: India is a secular country, and it will remain alwayssecular.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Hard-line BJP candidates, like Ramesh Thomar,insist they're committed to freedom for all religions, but at the sametime, Thomar says a temple must be built at the site of the demolishedBabri mosque.

RAMESH THOMAR: Construction of the temple is the permanent solution,and most of the Muslim people also wants that the temple of Rama inAyodhya that should be constructed.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So you would like to see a temple constructedin--

RAMESH THOMAR: Must, must, must.

Which party will control the future of India?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Election results show the BJP won the most seatsin parliament but not the majority needed to form a government. Itsposition on the temple and other issues will be the subject of intenseand difficult negotiations as it seeks coalition partners. KuldiNayyar is a columnist and former diplomat.

KULDIP NAYYAR, Columnist: The roots of tolerance, the roots of secularpolity, the roots of sense of accommodation are very deep, becauseeven last time, they tried their best to get others to join them.Fourteen, fifteen parties came together to keep them away becausethese people represent a philosophy or an ideology which is alien tothis country.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Opposing the BJP in the race to form a coalitiongovernment is the once dominant Congress Party, whose campaign was ledby a woman with India's best-known political name, Sonia Gandhi. Itfinished a distant second and will try to team with a group of smallerparties called the United Front to stop the Hindu Nationalists.

There is a popular saying about the newly appointed president of BJP,Nitin Gadkari … that he manages to elicit results with the least ofefforts. It was with great pomp that Gadkari had raised the apt issuein Indore that the party was in need of combative people, not ofsychophants or yes-men. But it is not hidden from anyone as to howserious the gentleman, whom Gadkari himself kept portraying as MrGenius from Indore to Delhi, is about political issues. Evenotherwise, in Gadkari’s regime the people who were first appointed tovarious posts are all known to be the flagbearers of the practice ofdoing the rounds of the powers that be. For example, the newly-appointed president of Punjab BJP Ashwini Sharma or Khimi Ram,Himachal’s executive president who has been made a full president byGadkari. The BJP president wanted to send Prabhat Jha as the presidentof Madhya Pradesh BJP; in Bihar he is advocating the need of handingover the reins to another loyal-tag owner Mantoo Pandey alias MangalPandey. One Alok Kumar has been appointed the chief of the all Indiatraining camp of the party. Or the saffron flag of aggression of theyes-brigade is flying high during the Gadkari rule.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari has started the process of selecting histeam. But for Gadkari, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is the most importantperson right now and if sources are to be believed then Gadkari’s ismoving fast forward on Sahasrabuddhe’s brains. In a way Sahasrabuddheis working as the political secretary of Gadkari. This association isexactly like the relationship Govindacharya once shared with Advani.Sanjay Joshi and Bal Apte are also going to play an important role inidentifying and selecting the new team for Gadkari. In view of theimportance of the forthcoming Assembly election in Bihar, Leader ofOpposition in the Upper House Arun Jaitley is being made the in-charge. One finds it difficult to recall if earlier a Leader ofOpposition had played the role of an election in-charge. What kind ofa precedent is being set by Gadkari?

NEW DELHI: Sensing that history may be created on the centenary ofInternational Women’s Day in India, if the Rajya Sabha succeeds inpassing the controversial Women’s Reservation Bill, enabling 33percent reservation of seats for women in Parliament and StateAssemblies, the BJP on Saturday lent a helping hand to the UPAGovernment.

The BJP core group meeting, which was convened by BJP president NitinGadkari, appealed to all political parties to vote in favour of theWomen’s Reservation Bill.

After the meeting, leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj said, “TheBJP was the first party to demand one-third reservation for women inParliament and state Assemblies. It has promised the Centre fullsupport to the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.” Leader of the Opposition inthe Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley was optimistic of the passage of theWomen’s Bill in the Upper House and said that on its own, the BJP wasmobilising support for the Bill.

Claiming that the BJP has always stood for empowerment of women, beingthe first party to give one-third reservation to women in the partyorganisation, Gadkari said that it had issued whip to all the partymembers of Rajya Sabha.

He said that it was the NDA Government, which first moved the Bill inParliament and mooted the idea to set apart 33 percent of the totalseats in Parliament and state Assemblies for women in BJP NationalCouncil meeting at Vadodara.

Unlike in 1996, when the BJP was riven with dissensions on the Women’sReservation Bill, with firebrand leader Uma Bharti opposing thelegislation inside the Lok Sabha, this time around, there is nodissenting voice.

Uma Bharti is no more in the BJP and with Sushma Swaraj leading theparty in the Lok Sabha, no one dares to challenge her ruling. “We haveto prove our own credibility,” remarked a senior leader from the RajyaSabha.

Apart from the three Yadavs, Mulayam Singh of the SP, Lalu Yadav ofRJD and Sharad Yadav of JD (U), the BJP alliance partner inMaharashtra, the Shiv Sena, is also opposing the Bill in its presentform.

Comments

Right & time demand step by leading political parties in nationalinterest.By Kapil Pathak3/7/2010 10:04:00 AM

By Anand Holla and Vickey LalwaniPosted On Monday, March 08, 2010 at 03:12:45 AM

The Mahajans have a way of making it to the headlines. This time it isRahul, who tied the knot, for the second time, with a 21-year-oldBengali model and item girl in a televised event on Saturday which wasattended by his mother, but not his sister.

Poonam Mahajan-Rao

Poonam Mahajan-Rao, who had always stood by her elder brother duringthe darkest phases of his life - the drug scandal for instance – wasmissing from the scene.

This sent the media and commentators in a tizzy, as Rahul and hisspokespersons found themselves struggling to deal with speculationsthat Poonam, who is a BJP youth wing leader, wanted to stay away fromthe reality drama.

After considerable effort, Mirror managed to speak to Poonam. “I am avery private person, and for me, an event like a marriage is a privateaffair.” However, Rahul’s ‘private affair’ was a high-voltage mega-TRP-driven event with millions watching it live as it unfolded. When askedwhy she didn’t join in the much-watched ceremony, Poonam defended, “Iam the kind of person who prefers to sit at home rather than make ashow out of things. I even keep my son’s birthday party as private aspossible. That’s how I am.”

Incidentally, Poonam was very much around when Rahul married hischildhood sweetheart Shweta in a private ceremony in 2006. Theydivorced two years later.

Speaking about her own wedding which was a low-key affair, Poonamsaid, “Ten years ago, I made a choice of getting married to the personI wanted to. Now, Rahul has made his choice and being his sistersupport him entirely.”

Rahul with his newly-wedded wife Dimpy Ganguly after the reality showconcluded

When asked if there are any differences within the Mahajan family overRahul’s choice and decision, Poonam said, “Rahul is my elder brotherand his decisions are totally his. I will be there for him just likeI’ve always been there for him, even during the tough times. I wishhim all the luck with this marriage. Together, we want to take forwardour father’s legacy by helping each other.”

Not just Poonam, missing from what was purported to be Rahul’s big daywas his uncle Gopinath Munde, BJP national general secretary and MP.Munde has been constantly by the side of late BJP leader PramodMahajan’s family since he was shot dead three years ago by youngerbrother Pravin.

BJP sources said Munde along with national president Nitin Gadkari andleader of state legislature Eknath Khadse were in Nashik for theirfelicitation. “The felicitation programme was finalised few months agoand Munde had accepted the invitation. In fact he made it a point toattend the Nashik event as his absence at previous felicitation eventin Aurangabad was being blamed on intra party tussle with Gadkari,’’ aparty leader remarked.

But the speculations over Poonam’s absence refuse to die down. “Poonammay have deliberately avoided not to attend the much publicisedwedding show for political reasons. She is keen to establish herselfpolitically and does not want to get embroiled in any controversy,’’the source said.

PM says the Centre is moving towards providing one-third reservationfor women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures

By PTIPosted On Sunday, March 07, 2010 at 04:12:40 AM

New Delhi: Affirming his commitment to women’s empowerment, PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the Government is movingtowards providing one-third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha andstate legislatures.

Inaugurating the women’s leadership summit here, he said theGovernment is committed to social, economic and political empowermentof women, whatever effort and resources the task might take.

The Women’s Reservation Bill providing for 33 per cent reservation ofseats for women in Lok Sabha and state Assemblies is expected to comeup in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Observing that reservation for women in local bodies hasrevolutionised governance at the grass-roots level, he said, “We hopeto give this movement of political participation of women furtherfillip by increasing the number of seats reserved in Panchayats andcity and town governments to 50 per cent.

“More significantly we are moving towards providing one-thirdreservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures," hesaid.

UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in a message read out by Women and ChildDevelopment Minister Krishna Tirath, said women in the country havebroken glass ceilings but those in rural areas have not been able toavail of many opportunities.

LS Speaker Meira Kumar said that though Indian tradition provides highstatus to women by worshipping them as gods, the practise is reversedin society.

The three-day summit being held as part of women's day celebrationswould be attended by women achievers from all fields.

JD-U divided

However, sharp divisions have emerged among the opponents of the Billwith Bihar Chief Nitish Kumar supporting the measure, pitting himselfagainst his party President Sharad Yadav who is opposed to it.

SP also opposes

The Samajwadi Party, which opposes the Bill in its present form, onSaturday said it will register its “protest” on Monday. The SP hassuggested reservation within reservation for OBC women, not more than20 per cent.BJP supports

Asserting that it was determined to ensure passage of the Bill, BJPsought to make political capital on the issue by stating that sincethe UPA coalition was in minority in the RS, the onus of getting itadopted was with the main opposition.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Saturday convened an emergency meetingof the party Core Group to discuss the Bill.

New Delhi, March 7 – With the numbers favouring the passage of thewomen’s reservation bill in the Rajya Sabha Monday, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), a prominent party opposing it, Sunday indicated asoftening of its position.

JD-U chief whip in the Rajya Sabha Ali Anwar Ansari said the partywill consider the opinion of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar insupport of the bill, which seeks to reserve 33 percent seats for womenin parliament and state legislatures.

‘A meeting of JD-U MPs will be held at party president Sharad Yadav’sresidence Monday morning. We will take a unanimous decision,’ Ansaritold IANS.

The JD-U has not issued a whip to its MPs to either support or opposethe bill.

Ansari said the bill is expected to be passed by the upper house ofparliament and ‘there is no point of opposing it for the sake ofopposition’.

‘We are taking the opinion of all our members and a decision will betaken,’ he said.

Ansari, who spoke to both Yadav and Nitish Kumar Sunday, ruled out thepossibility of the party abstaining from the vote on the bill.

Nitish Kumar, who will lead the JD-U charge in campaign for Biharassembly elections later this year, Saturday spoke in favour of thebill.

With more and more parties coming out in favour of the legislation,the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) remainedits only two vocal opponents. Both parties are demanding quotas forbackward classes and minorities within 33 per cent reservation forwomen. While the SP has 11 members in the Rajya Sabha, the RJD hasfour.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has 12 members in the upperhouse, has not opened its cards yet with regards to the bill.

For the bill to be passed, it has to be supported by two-thirds ofthose present and voting. This figure should also be at least 50percent of the total number of members in the house.

With an effective strength of 233, the Constitution (108th AmendmentBill), 2008, needs support of 155 members in the Rajya Sabha if allthe members are present.

While the combined strength of the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and the Left – three main supporters of the bill – comes to 138in the upper house, many other parties, including the DMK, AIADMK,Biju Janata Dal, National Conference, Nationalist Congress Party andShiromani Akali Dal have expressed their support for the path-breakinglegislation.

With the ruling Congress having timed the consideration of the billwith the International Women’s Day and party president Sonia Gandhimaking a strong pitch for its passage, the BJP too has joined the raceto claim credit.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who appealed to all parties to supportthe bill, said the party was conscious that the ruling coalition wasin minority in the Rajya Sabha. He said the National DemocraticAlliance (NDA) government had first moved the bill in parliament.

The Constitution (108th Amendment Bill), 2008, provides forreservation of one-third seats in the Lok Sabha and state assembliesfor 15 years from the date of commencement of the Act on rotationbasis.

The proposal to provide such reservation to women has been pending forthe last 13 years due to lack of political consensus.

BJP to oppose any proposal for autonomy to KashmirBy IANSJanuary 19th, 2010

NEW DELHI - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin GadkariTuesday said his party will oppose any proposal for granting autonomyto Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking at a function here to mark 20 years of exodus of KashmiriPandits from the valley, he said a solution to the Kashmir problemshould be found within the parameters of the Indian Constitution.

“We will oppose autonomy with full force. If such a proposal comes toParliament, we will be against it,” he said.

Gadkari termed as “dangerous” the report of Justice Saghir Ahmad - whoheaded the working group on Centre-State relations - recommendinggiving autonomy to the state. The report was submitted to the Jammuand Kashmir government last month.

The BJP chief blamed the Congress for the problems in Jammu andKashmir. “Congress has messed up things in the state,” he said, addingthat the “mistakes” should not be repeated.

SHIMLA - In another twist to the corruption cases against union SteelMinister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh, a new audiocompact disc (CD) from an unknown source was circulated here Tuesdayin which Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal is purportedly directing thevigilance chief to tap the phones of the couple.

Two other CDs were also released here — one audio in which Dhumal washeard talking about former union ministers Sukh Ram and Shanta Kumarand the other video in which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)parliamentarian Virender Kashyap was shown accepting some cash inregard to granting permission to an educational institute in thestate.

In the alleged conversation recorded in the first CD, Director Generalof Police (Vigilance) D.S. Manhas asked Dhumal regarding Singh and hiswife’s phone tapping. At this Dhumal replied: “Do it.”

Manhas then said: “Yes, we will do it, we will do it. If the CID(Criminal Investigation Department) is doing it, its staff will leakit.” Dhumal replied: “This is right.”

Dhumal and Manhas allegedly also talked about some Rs.25 crore (Rs.250million).

However, a senior police official said there was no proof of theauthenticity of the CD. “It is released when the vigilance is almostready to start within a month the prosecution against Virbhadra Singhand his wife,” he said.

The cases against Singh and his wife were registered Aug 3, 2009,under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The complaint against Singhalleges misuse of his official position and criminal misconduct whenhe was the chief minister of the state in 1989.

Interestingly, they were booked on the basis of an audio CD releasedby Singh’s political adversary Vijay Singh Mankotia in 2007.

Meanwhile, Dhumal refuted the allegations in the new CD. He told IANSon phone from Delhi Tuesday: “Right now I am not in the state. I havenot seen the CD and not even heard about it. I am not in a position tocomment on it.”

“The government machinery is not involved in phone tapping of Singhand his wife. It’s just a white lie,” he added.

The CD that showed BJP parliamentarian Virender Kashyap talking tosomeone on the issue of granting permission to an educationalinstitute in the state was recorded April 17, 2009 when Kashyap wasonly a party activist.

In the conversation, Kashyap was insisting and telling the personsitting opposite to him to first complete the formalities and thenseek formal permission. The CD also showed Kashyap being offered somecash, which he hesitantly accepted.

SHIMLA - Police is likely to start within a month the prosecutionagainst union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife PratibhaSingh in corruption cases registered against them, an official saidhere Friday.

“We are still awaiting a few forensic reports from a Central ForensicScience Laboratory (CFSL)… most likely the prosecution againstVirbhadra Singh and his wife would start within a month,” DirectorGeneral of Police (Vigilance) D.S. Manhas told reporters.

Regarding the questionnaires sent to the couple, Manhas said: “We gotthe replies to the questionnaire. Both the questionnaires have about25 questions.”

The cases against Singh and his wife were registered Aug 3, 2009, bythe state vigilance and anti-corruption bureau under the Prevention ofCorruption Act.

The complaint against Singh alleges misuse of his official positionand criminal misconduct when he was chief minister of the state in1989.

According to police, they were booked on the basis of an audio CDreleased by Singh’s political adversary Vijai Singh Mankotia in 2007.

In the CD, Singh was heard referring to some monetary transactions onthe phone with former Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) officerMahinder Lal, who is now dead. The CD also contained recordings of hiswife and some industrialists.

Manhas said that four of the nine people identified in the CD aredead.

“Four are dead out of the nine accused. It is still to be decided thatwho is the main accused,” the police official added.

Singh has already refuted the allegations, saying the state’s rulingBharatiya Janata Party was trying to malign him.

I was part of a small team from Friends of BJP that was invited toattend the BJP National Council meet in Indore in mid-Feb. It wasquite a gathering - over 5,000 people brought together from all overthe country.

Among the announcements made was that of the revival of Friends ofBJP.

Here is what Nitin Gadkari said in his Presidential Address: “We arealso planning to revive Friends of BJP, an associate organisation ofthe non-member Well Wishers of the party. All patriotic citizens,especially all young professionals who look forward to BJP as aninstrument of making India a resurgent republic are welcome to jointhis forum.”

We will be back with more details soon. My hope is that we can helpbring about a change in India’s political and policy climate in thecoming years.

3 responses so far ↓

1 Santosh // Mar 8, 2010 at 10:29 am

Rajesh,I was one of the individuals who wanted BJP voted back to power in2004 because of what they achieved in their last term. And I firmlybelieve that BJP was pro-reforms in their term.

But seeing what India has been able to achieve in last 6 odd yearsshouldn’t be undermined. Ofcourse, Congress isn’t the reformist thatmost urban Indians want and India has managed the growth because ofsheer efficiencies of private enterprise.For what we have achieved in last 6 years, I don’t go all out againstthem. Today, I don’t see any reason why BJP should be supported -There is no great leader remaining whom we can trust to take ourcountry forward. They don’t play the role of constructive oppositionat all. They find baseless arguments in blocking/ criticizing everyCongress move.

I fail to understand what is it that you see so strongly in BJP to go& support them. I don’t to vote for a government shouts from roof-top.I want a clear plan of what they would do & who is the team that is atwork. Unfortunately, I don’t see either.

2 Alok Mittal // Mar 8, 2010 at 11:17 am

What is really needed is not revival of Friends of BJP, but revival ofBJP itself. I think Congress has won a lot of erstwhile BJP supportersover the past 6 years; and BJP has lost a lot of supporters over thepast 2 years. There is a critical distinction between the two, and thelatter can only be addressed by the BJP leadership itself.

3 Adarsh Jain // Mar 8, 2010 at 1:54 pm

Alok and Santosh,

I think for the future of the country there should be a worthyopposition. After Nitin Gadkari became party president, I believe BJPis ready for transformation and play the role of constructiveopposition till next election

NEW DELHI, March 8 (AFP) - An attempt by India's government to passlegislation reserving a third of all seats for women in parliamentprovoked uproar on Monday as opposition politicians forced repeatedadjournments.

The government had been confident that the Women Reservation Bill,which has been stalled for 14 years, would gather the required votesto pass in the upper house on Monday after being presented onInternational Women's Day.

The upper house was adjourned twice on Monday as politicians opposingthe bill shouted down speakers and refused to allow the introductionof the proposed legislation and a scheduled debate.

The ruling Congress party, its allies and the main oppositionBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pledged their support in public, butseveral socialist parties oppose it.

They argue that the law, which would reserve a third of seats forwomen in the parliament and state assemblies, would lead to a monopolyby upper-caste women at the expense of lower caste and religiousminority Muslims.

"We are not anti-women but we want reservations for women hailing fromminority and backward classes first," Mulayam Singh Yadav, a leader ofthe pro-Muslim Samajwadi (Socialist) party said outside parliament.

Attempts to pass the bill have been blocked by various politicalgroups in the past who have demanded separate quotas for women fromMuslim and low-caste communities.

Yadav said the bill was an attempt by the Congress and the BJP toappease the rich and the influential upper class.

The controversial proposal to reserve 33 percent of seats, firstintroduced in parliament in 1996, would dramatically increase women'smembership in both houses of parliament where they now occupy aboutone in 10 seats.

Because the bill involves a constitutional change, it needs theapproval of two-thirds of legislators in the upper house after whichit will go before the lower house where it also requires a two-thirdsmajority.

Women currently occupy 59 seats out of 545 in the lower house. Thereare just 21 women in the 248-seat upper house.

"Our government is committed towards women empowerment. We are movingtowards one-third reservation for women in parliament and statelegislatures," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a women's leadershipsummit on Saturday.

Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress party and regarded as India'smost powerful politician, has thrown her weight behind the bill,saying she attaches the "highest importance" to it.

It will be a "gift to the women of India if it is introduced andpassed" on International Women's Day, she told party lawmakers lastweek.

Political analysts said the government was testing the waters byintroducing it in the upper house first instead of the lower house,where most proposed legislation is sent.

Some accused the government of playing politics by seeking to appeasewomen by proposing the legislation but without having any realisticchance of it passing.

Politics in India has traditionally been a male bastion, but women nowhold prominent positions, including President Pratibha Patil and SoniaGandhi. India has had one female prime minister, Indira Gandhi.

Panchayats -- local governing bodies in towns and villages -- alreadyreserve a portion of their seats for women and experts say the movehas given women greater status in their communities. (By Rupam JainNair/ AFP)

MySinchew 2010.03.08

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/36074

Why Lalu-Mulayam exit worries government

NDTV Correspondent, Monday March 8, 2010, New Delhi

The Prime Minister is holding emergency meetings with his seniorministers to discuss the Women's Bill and the impact of Lalu Prasadand Mulayam Singh Yadav announcing they will withdraw their support tothis government. (Read & Watch: Mulayam, Lalu withdraw support togovt)

Lalu and Mulayam have said the Women's Bill is being forced upon themby the Congress, and that it does not protect the interest of Dalitand Muslim women.

The Rajya Sabha is meant to vote on the bill today.

For the Women's Bill, the government is not worried about the numbersbecause the Opposition - the BJP and the Left, along with smallerparties, are in favour of the bill.

However, the Finance Bill has not yet been passed. And that's what thegovernment is worried about.

The UPA government believes that without Lalu and Mulayam's MPs, itcan still count on 274 votes in favour of Pranab Mukherjee's budget.The number of votes required to pass it is 273. So the government'smargin is tiny. And that's what the BJP and Left will try to exploit.Both have already attacked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee over thebudget, in particular, over the hike in petrol and diesel prices. Thegovernment's key allies including the DMK and Mamata Banerjee havealso expressed their concern over the fuel hike, and the government'snew numbers weaken its position if it finds it must negotiate withthese allies.

The Congress-led UPA government finds itself in a spot. Set to tableand get the Women's Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha, it nowhas to contend with the threat of withdrawal of support from twotraditional opponents of the Bill - the Samajwadi Party and the RJD.

Both parties have announced they are withdrawing support to the UPAgovernment over the Bill. While the government does not need theirsupport to pass this Bill, since the BJP and the Left will vote infavour, it will find itself on an uncomfortable, wafer-thin majorityfor other legislation, like the crucial Finance Bill, without thebuffer of the 22 Samajwadi Party MPs and 4 RJD MPs in the Lok Sabha.(Read: Why Lalu-Mulayam exit worries government)

Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Yadav have said they oppose the Women'sBill because it does not protect the interests of minorities and OtherBackward Castes.

The bill reserves 33% seats for women in Parliament and in stateassemblies.

"Reservation should be for Muslims and Dalits," said Mulayam SinghYadav.

"The government is trying to force the bill upon us. The Congressdoes not listen to anyone. The bill must bring the Asli Bharatforward...the Congress is leaving women and Muslims behind, " saidLalu.

The government is in a huddle right now on what next steps should be.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is holding meetings with seniorcolleagues like Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and ParliamentaryAffairs Minsiter PK Bansal to evolve a strategy.

Not to press ahead with the Women's Bill today will mean a big loss offace, especially given that the Bill is close to Congress PresidentSonia Gandhi's heart and the many statements that she and otherCongress leaders and ministers have already made. But the party cannotrisk Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav actually carrying outtheir threat and officially withdrawing support.

Along with the BSP, the two parties have already ensured thatParliament proceedings are anything but smooth. As Lok Sabha opened inthe morning, Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh rushed to the Well of theHouse.

In the Rajya Sabha too, the SP and RJD disrupted Question Hour. Herethey demanded the implementation of the Ranganath Mishra Commissionreport first. (Read: Chaos in Parliament over Women's Bill)

Mulayam Singh Yadav, and Lalu Yadav have announced the withdrawal oftheir outside support to the UPA government over the Women'sReservation Bill.

The government is attempting history in the making, but theproceedings have got off to a very rocky start. There was chaos inboth the houses when they opened on Monday morning.

Rajya Sabha:

The Rajya Sabha witnessed unprecendented scenes leading to anadjournment for the third time on Monday as determined SP, RJD, LJPand BSP members entered the well of the House, ripped off mikes andtore up papers in an attempt to stall the Women's Reservation Billfrom being taken up for consideration.

An attempt was made to snatch the Bill from the Chairman's table whichwas prevented by marshals. However, they snatched some papers from theSecretary General's table and tore them up.

Mr Kamal Akhtar of Samajwadi Party, Mr Sabir Ali of LJP and MrGangacharan Rajput of BSP along with other party members spearheadedthe stalling tactics. Some of them then got on the reporters' table inthe well of the House.

All members of various political parties were on their feet. Seeingthese antics many looked shocked.

The ruling Congress party members, especially women, were seen makinga protective ring around Law Minister M Veerappa Moily who will movethe Bill for consideration.

Shocked over these developments, the Chairman adjourned the House till3 pm.

Earlier, the House was adjourned twice within minutes of assembling asmembers of the SP, RJD, LJP, and BSP raised slogans from the well ofthe House demanding implementation of the Ranganath Mishra Commissionreport.

Lok Sabha:

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the third time on Monday afternoonwhen SP, RJD and JD(U) members trooped into the well protesting theWomen's Reservation Bill in its present form.

When the House, which was earlier adjourned twice on the same issue,reassembled at 2 pm, members of these parties led by RJD chief LaluPrasad, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and JD(U) President Sharad Yadav,stormed the well shouting slogans.

As the slogan-shouting continued, Trinamool Congress members includingits chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, were seen singing thefamous song - "We shall overcome some day".

Other Trinamool members, including Minister of State for Health DineshTrivedi, chief whip Sudip Bandopadhyay and cine-star turned MPShatabdi Roy, were heard singing the song in the House.

HYDERABAD: The BJP is contemplating quitting the Telangana politicalJAC and evolve its own programme of action to rouse public opinion infavour of separate Telangana State.

The State leadership of the party wants to strengthen the party’s baseat ground level in villages. It will have `Jai Telangana’ slogan inTelangana areas and `Jai Andhra’ in Andhra districts.

The party’s approach to Telangana that all legislators should resignand force a constittutional crisis has changed after it encounteredopposition within the party. Those who opposed it argued that MLAs ofneither the Congress nor the TDP resigned.

This was the reason why these elements got together and ensured theelection of Kishan Reddy as the party’s State president who toosubscribed to the idea and refused to resign. In such an event, thepoint that is being discussed at length is why stay in the JAC whenthe party is not in a position to honour its decisions (of quittingthe Assembly).

To make this easy for Kishan Reddy’s supporters, the BJP NationalCommittee too expressed displeasure over the BJP continuing in the JACand wanted it to make an honourable exit from the panel so that itwould not be misconstrued by the people.

Already, the ABVP, which has an ideological affiliation with the BJP,is carrying on the movement for Telangana without joining the JAC andhas already made a mark. The BJP wants to toe the same line so that itwill be able to preseve its identity and strengthen its base.

The Stare party leadership has asked the district units to organiseTelangana programmes in districts only in the name of the party andwill not have anything to do with the JAC. This apart, the JAC leadersare not on good terms with the new chief of the State unit.

Comments

PEOPLE AND STUDENTS OF T-REGION REJECTED KCR/TRS & TRAITORS INTELANGANA CONGRESS FOR PUBLICITY STUNTS AND RESIGNATION DRAMAS AND KCR/TRS MP NOT RESIGNED AGAINST THEIR OWN ADVISE TO OTHERS AND KCRATTENDING RAJ BHAVAN DINNER EVEN AFTER KNOWING THE WITH SRI KRISHNA'STOR- SEPARATE-T NOT FEASIBLE HAS GONE AGAINS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE.TRS/KCR WILL REALISE THIS IN BYE-ELECTION RESULTS THAT IS WHY KCR/TRSMP NOR RESIGNED.

HYDERABAD: The BJP State Council has demanded that the Centreintroudce a bill in Parliament for bifurcation of the State.

The council, which met here yesterday, said in its politicalresolution that the constitution of the Justice BN SrikrishnaCommittee was intended to prolong the issue and saw no need for theparty to make a presentation to the Srirkrishna panel since itbeleived that the committee’s purpose was other than formation of twoStates.

“Bifurcation of the State is the only answer to backwardness of thetwo regions,’’ it said and criticised other parties for theirdichotomy on the issue.

By another resolution the council expressed concern over thedeteriroration of administration which led to increase in the pricesof essential commodities as well as breakdown of law and order.

The murder of Sri Vaishnavi in Vijayawada and the hooch tragedy inEast Godavari district were indicative of the breakdown of the law andorder machienry, the council said. It alleged that the StateGovernment had miserably failed to come to the rescue of peopleaffected by the unprecedented floods in Kurnool, Mahaboobnagar,Krishna and Guntur districts.

Though the Centre annoucned Rs 1,000 crore for mitigation of thesuffering of the flood-affected people, the funds had so far not beentransferred, it pointed out.

A resoultion said that the adminsitraion was in a state of suspendedanimation with Chief Minister K Rosaiah, who was asked to step intothe shoes of YS Rajasekhara Reddy who died in a helicopter crash,being unable to perform.

By another resolution the party demanded that the State should takeimmediate steps for controlling the prices of essential commoditieswhich have been going through the roof and supply power for nine hoursto the farm sector to save standing crops.

Women's Bill: 'Conspiracy to eliminate minorities'PATNA: RJD chiefLalu Prasad on Sunday declared he will fight tooth and nail againstwomen's reservation Bill. "Yuddh hoga (There would be a war)," hethundered and added the OBC brigade will roll up sleeves against themove.

Lalu said BJP and Congress are making a 'historical blunder' byissuing a whip to their MPs to vote for the Bill in its present form."If they (Congress and BJP) think they will get women's votes, theyare mistaken. It's a male-dominated society (where women go by whattheir menfolk say while voting). If I ask my wife, Rabri Devi, to votefor a particular party, do you think she will vote for another party?"he asked at a presser and added nowhere in the world women getreservation in legislative bodies.

Even if it has to be given, there should be quota for deprivedsections within this reservation, Lalu said and added the faces ofwomen belonging to minority community, backward castes, Dalits andtribals should be visible through this reservation. "The quota shouldbe for those who cannot enter the legislative bodies on their own," hesaid.

By introducing the Bill, the RJD leader said, the Congress is tryingto divert people's attention from main issues like price rise,unemployment, growing regionalism and threat to national security."The BJP and Congress want to get votes of Muslims, Dalits and OBCs,but they do not want to safeguard their interests," he said.

Lalu hit out at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for changing tack onthe issue. "Nitish is a `bahurupiya' (a master of disguise)," Lalusaid, recalling Nitish earlier gave a note of dissent as a member ofthe parliamentary committee which looked into this issue.

Also, Nitish's party colleague and JD(U) national president SharadYadav once declared he would consume poison if the women's reservationBill in its present form was introduced. "By advising Sharad to ensurethe passage of the Bill now, Nitish has shown his real face to theMuslims, Dalits and OBCs," Lalu said.

JAMMU, Mar 7: The historical comment of former Prime Minister lateIndira Gandhi “The clock could not be put back in this manner” iscentral theme of ‘some kind of restoration of autonomy’ recommended byJustice Sagheer Panel on centre-state relations and clearly, incontrast to vehement claims of ruling coalition.

The recommendation is in agreement with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)led union cabinet’s decision on Autonomy resolution of Jammu andKashmir on July 5, 2000. The then union cabinet while rejectingautonomy resolution of then National Conference (NC) led government inJammu and Kashmir had accepted that there is a clear case fordevolution of more financial and administrative powers and functionsto the states alongside taking suitable steps to ensure harmoniouscentre-state relations in the light of the recommendations of theSarkaria Commission.

Interestingly, the union cabinet had then rejected autonomy resolutionby referring to Kashmir accord, more commonly known as Indira-SheikhAccord. It had said that issue of restoring constitutional situationin Jammu and Kashmir to its pre-1953 position had been discussed indetail by late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah with former Prime Ministerlate Indira Gandhi in 1974-75. The decision had noted that agreementsigned after these negotiations had affirmed that provisions of theConstitution of India already applied to the state of Jammu andKashmir without adaptation or modification are unalterable.

Justice (Retd) Sagheer in his report on Pages 93 and 94 has referredto speech of former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi in theparliament on February 24, 1975 in which she had remarked, “Theconstitutional relationship between state of Jammu and Kashmir and theunion will continue as it has been and extension of further provisionsof constitution to the state will continue to be governed by procedureprescribed in Article 370.”

Justice Sagheer further notes, “Sheikh Abdullah was very anxious thatto start with, the constitutional relationship between the state andthe centre should be as it was in 1953 when he was in power. It wasexplained to him that the clock could not be put back in this manner.Mirza Afzal Beg pressed for transfer of provisions relating tofundamental rights to state constitution, removal of the supervisionand control of Election Commission of India over elections to thestate legislature and the modification of Article 356 to require thestate government’s concurrence before imposing president’s rule in thestate.”

Late Indira Gandhi while outrightly rejecting these demands had said,“It was not found possible to agree to any of these proposals. I mustsay to the credit of Sheikh Abdullah that despite his strong views onthese issues, he has accepted the agreed conclusion.” After this,Justice (Retd) Sagheer has referred to clause 3 and 4 of the KashmirAccord.The panel while referring these two clauses has concluded that if anyprovision of the constitution of India had been applied to the stateof Jammu and Kashmir without adaptations and modifications, then suchmodifications are unalterable. But with respect to provisions appliedwith adaptations and modifications, it was agreed that they can bealtered or repealed by an order of President under Article 370 buteach individual proposal in this behalf would be considered on itsmerits;

“With a view to assuring freedom to the State of Jammu and Kashmir tohave its own legislation on matters like welfare measures culturalmatters, social security, personal law and procedural laws, in amanner suited to the special conditions in the State, it is agreedthat the State Government can review the laws made by Parliament orextended to the State after 1953 on any matter related to theConcurrent List and may decide which of them, in its opinion, needsamendment or repeal. Thereafter, appropriate steps may be taken underArticle 254 of the Constitution of India. The grant of President'sassent to such legislation would be sympathetically considered,”Justice Sagheer has noted from the Kashmir Accord as relevant topresent discourse on autonomy.

Concluding debate on autonomy, Justice Sagheer Ahmed has referred to aSupreme Court decision in Sampat Prakash vs. State of Jammu andKashmir in which it was held that inspite of the dissolution ofconstituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, the constitutionalprovisions could be extended to the state of Jammu and Kashmir withsuch adaptations and modifications as the president may deem fit. Itis after these referrals that Justice Sagheer has recommended forexamining the question of autonomy in the light of Kashmir Accord.

Interestingly, the ruling coalition through 10 page recommendatorynotes of report had claimed that Justice Sagheer had recommended whatNational Conference (NC) led government had proposed centralgovernment through a resolution properly passed and vetted by morethan 60 members of state legislative assembly on June 26, 2000. Theresolution which was rejected by the then BJP led NDA government onJuly 5, 2000.

The Rae Bareli court's discharge of L.K. Advani in the Ayodhyademolition case is a mockery of justice, but the Supreme Court'sintervention in the Best Bakery matter revives hopes that the Indianlegal system might prevail in bringing the perpetrators of communalhate crimes to book.

THE waywardness of India's police and justice delivery systems has fewparallels when it comes to punishing communal offences and hatecrimes. What began as a devious process of manipulation of the firstinformation reports in the Babri mosque demolition case, and thetotally illegitimate dropping of conspiracy charges against theprincipal accused, turned into a grotesque parody of justice onSeptember 19 when the Special Court of Magistrate Vinay Kumar Singh inRae Bareli framed charges against seven persons, including MurliManohar Joshi, Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar and other Vishwa HinduParishad leaders, but discharged Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani.Advani is the man who spearheaded, planned and ideologically inspiredthe raucous agitation that led to the razing of the mosque on December6, 1992.

Precisely what charges are framed against the remaining seven will beonly known on October 10. The list of offences filed by the CBI underthe Indian Penal Code (IPC) is not long: Section 147 (rioting), 149(committing a crime), 153A and 153B (spreading communal hatred) and505 (creating ill will). But it is clear that the indictment will notinclude the all-important charge of criminal conspiracy, nor offencesunder Sections 295 and 295A of the IPC (defiling places of worship andindulging in acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of anyclass).

Thus, the perpetrators of one of the worst hate crimes in India'shistory - who pulled down a monument which had become a symbol ofpluralism - will not even stand trial for destroying a mosque andexploiting communal hatred, which they so clearly did.

This is bad enough. What is downright outrageous is that Advani, whowas the most important leader of the anti-Babri movement which the BJPtook over in the late 1980s, and who conducted the infamous Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra and played a direct, preponderant role in theevents leading to December 6, has been let off the hook. Theostensible reason made public for this is the curious argument thatthe CBI cited two conflicting testimonies, one of which claimed thatAdvani tried to calm down the restive crowd (while the other said hedid nothing to restrain leaders like Uma Bharati and SadhviRitambhara, with whom he shared the dais who made extremelyinflammatory speeches).

Basing himself on this claimed contradiction, the Magistrate gaveAdvani the "benefit of the doubt". Strangely, he cited the SupremeCourt's ruling in the Praful Kumar Samal case, that if the scales ofevidence presented against the accused during a trial are "even" thenthat is a fit ground for acquittal. This conforms to the canonicalrule that a person must be considered innocent until proved guilty.

Logically, this rationale can come into effect only at the conclusionof a trial, not before it, at the stage of framing charges. It doesnot stand to reason that a person against whom there is weighty primafacie evidence should be simply let off. The Supreme Court had said:"If an element of grave suspicion is there and the accused hasexplained the doubts then he can be discharged." Advani manifestly didnot explain away any "doubts".

The Magistrate has erred in exonerating Advani. Independentinvestigations have turned up overwhelming evidence of Advani'spivotal role in the processes and events that led to the demolition,including the happenings of December 6. The Citizens' Tribunal onAyodhya, comprising Justices O. Chinappa Reddy, D.A. Desai and D.S.Tewatia documented Advani's role at length in its Report of theInquiry Commission (July 1993) and in the Judgement andRecommendations (December 1993), both published by the Tribunal (K-14Green Park Extension, New Delhi 110016).

These show that Advani was central to the build-up to the events ofDecember 1992 - from numerous kar sevas, the 1990 rath yatra, andmanipulation of the State government (then under the BJP's KalyanSingh), to misleading the courts, and organising crucial coordinationmeetings of the Sangh combine. The intention to raze the mosque wasrepeatedly and unambiguously stressed during these events. The verypurpose of the rath yatra was to kindle "Hindu pride" and "get even"with history - of "conquest and humiliation" of the Hindus by"foreigners". The main slogans of the yatra were provocative: "thereare only two places for Muslims - Pakistan or kabristan(graveyard))".

The Inquiry Commission recorded detailed testimony of eyewitnesses toshow that plans for December 6 were launched by the BJP-VHP-BajrangDal with a lalkar saptah starting November 29. By December 2, 90,000kar sevaks had gathered at Ayodhya. By December 3, they numbered150,000. On December 5, Advani addressed a public meeting in Lucknowand was to go to Varanasi, reaching Ayodhya/Faizabad on December 5.He, however, altered his plans so as to reach Faizabad to join an all-important closed-door meeting at Vinay Katiyar's house, where theultimate, detailed, nuts-and-bolts plans for December 6 werefinalised.

Among those present were the RSS' H.V. Seshadri and K.S. Sudershan,the VHP's Ashok Singhal, Vinay Katiyar and Acharya Dharmendra, theShiv Sena's Moreshwar Save, and the BJP's Pramod Mahajan. Meanwhile, arehearsal of the demolition operation took place the same day near theBabri mosque.

According to the Commission, on December 6, Advani arrived at the siteat the same time as Joshi (10-30 a.m.). He, among others, addressedthe kar sevaks. His speech was intemperate. Meanwhile, some kar sevakshad breached the security cordon and were in a highly excited state.At 11-30 a.m., Uma Bharati made a highly inflammatory speech,including slogans "tel lagao Dabar ka, naam mitao Babar ka", "Katuekate jayenge, Ram-Ram chillayenge", and so on.

At 11-45, Advani reportedly announced, "We don't need bulldozers topull down the mosque; [we can do it manually by removing chunks of itswall]". The assault on the mosque began. Advani then ensured that thedemolition would continue and be completed without the intervention ofCentral paramilitary forces stationed nearby. At 3-15 p.m., he urgedkar sevaks "to block all entry points to Ayodhya to prevent Centralforces from entering, and warned the armed forces not to touch the karsevaks." The eight accused were present at the site for a full sevenhours and made no gesture to distance themselves from the destructiveand illegal actions of the day.

The December 6 events were videographed and photographed by numerousjournalists, by Indian and foreign TV channels and, above all, by theIntelligence Bureau, which reportedly has nine hours of tapes.(Curiously, the CBI did not present all of these to the specialcourt).

Yet, the Sangh Parivar has launched a disinformation campaign whichclaims that Advani did his best to restrain the kar sevaks and shedtears at the demolition! It is relevant to ask if these were tears ofsorrow or of joy: Advani has consistently described the anti-Babriagitation as a "national" movement for Hindu self-assertion, whichfinally removed what he called the "ocular" insult in the form of themosque.

The disinformation and evasion of responsibility speaks of monumentalcowardice on the part of Advani & Co. They revelled in thedestruction, and hugged one another in exultation and mutualcongratulation.

The BJP rode to political power at the Centre on the anti-Babri Masjidmovement. In all honesty, its leaders must face trial and declareeither that they stand by their role or that they regret and repent itand apologise. They cannot both take credit for the act and attributeits planning and execution to mysterious, unknown and unknowableforces - as Sangh ideologue K.R. Malkani once did, by blaming theCIA.

There was a clearly identifiable human agency behind December 6: theBJP-VHP-RSS-Bajrang Dal-Shiv Sena's top leadership, including Advaniand Joshi. But cowardice is a Sangh characteristic. Following Gandhi'sassassination, the RSS was banned. Thousands of its members quicklystopped participating in its activities and claimed they were neverits members.

The Rae Bareli order is odious. But Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterMulayam Singh Yadav has decided not to appeal against it - on thegrounds that "I am a firm believer in the judiciary and of the viewthat the court verdict on Ayodhya should be acceptable to all ... Iwelcome the court's decision and have nothing more to say ... " AmarSingh has gone even further to say that the government cannot appealagainst it. This strengthens the suspicions of a secret collusive dealbetween the BJP and the Samajwadi Party. Mulayam Singh Yadav hasdecided to accept the BJP's Kesarinath Tripathi as Speaker and not topoach on the party's MLAs. This makes the whole matter all the moresordid. It sets back hopes of a just trial and further shakes thepublic's confidence in India's justice delivery system.

IN contrast to this comes the Supreme Court's intervention in the BestBakery case. Through two hearings on September 12 and 19, the courteffectively began piloting and guiding the Gujarat government in itshandling of the consequences of a "fast-track" special court'sjudgment exonerating all the accused for the burning of 14 Muslims.While questioning Gujarat's Chief Secretary and Director-General ofPolice directly, Chief Justice V.N. Khare obtained an assurance thatGujarat's Advocate-General would now take full charge of the matter.He would redraft the appeal against the "fast-track" court verdict.

The Supreme Court tried to establish three things: the Best Bakeryinvestigation was faulty because 37 of the 43 witnesses turnedhostile; there was miscarriage of justice; and there is a case for re-trial of the accused outside Gujarat. The Gujarat government did admitthat there was miscarriage of justice and there is a case for re-trial(although that should not be outside Gujarat). It also claimed theinvestigation was not faulty. However, the Supreme Court asked it tofile an affidavit on October 9 to say on what lines its appeal wouldbe drafted. This suggests close supervision or stewardship of theprocess of litigation.

Welcome as this intervention is, the Court needs to go beyond the BestBakery case and look at the horrendous crimes committed during theGujarat pogrom in their totality. Crimes Against Humanity, the reportof the Concerned Citizens' Tribunal, comprising eminent jurists andscholars, concluded, after examining 2,094 statements and 1,500witnesses, that the pogrom that lasted several weeks amounted togenocide in the strict sense of the term. The pattern of violenceshows: selective targeting of Muslims, inhuman forms of brutality,military precision and planning, and use of Hindu religious symbols.This was planned, sustained and prolonged through hate speech,intimidation and terror by the RSS, the BJP and the VHP-Bajrang Dal,with the complicity and participation of policemen and bureaucrats,encouraged by Narendra Modi.

It is clear that Muslims were targeted not because they did this orthat act, but simply because they were Muslims. The killer mobs'declared intention, as revealed by their own slogans, was toliquidate, mentally harm, humiliate and subjugate Muslims and "destroythem", "wipe them out from Gujarat", and cleanse the state of Islam.The physical violence directed against Muslims, the calculateddestruction of the economic basis of their survival, and sexualassaults against Muslim women as an instrument of terror, all point togenocide.

The Gujarat pogrom unambiguously fits the definition. As a signatoryto the Convention, India is obliged to punish the perpetrators ofgenocide through a competent court. This demands a special independentNational Tribunal for hate crimes and genocide. This alone can meetthe ends of justice.

For this to happen, we must see the numerous cases of violence not asdiscrete acts, but in their totality as genocide. This sui generisprocess of litigation will need special agencies for investigation andprosecution as well as victim protection. It would be a historictragedy if the Indian state once again fails to bring the perpetratorsof hate crimes to book.

Volume 20 - Issue 20, September 27 - October 10, 2003India's National Magazinefrom the publishers of THE HINDU

The pattern set in the aftermath of the Staines killing shows thatthere are enough voices in positions of authority willing to justifyheinous crimes committed in the name of religion.

SUKUMAR MURALIDHARAN

SENSITIVITY to public opinion was at a premium in the aftermath of thegrisly murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and histwo young boys by a lynch mob in Orissa on January 23. Union HomeMinister L.K. Advani put on record his strong condemnation of theevent, as did Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh, the latterdescribing it as a "crime against humanity". But for each suchconcession to the demands of rectitude, there was a gesture thattended to work to the contrary purpose. One such act was Advani'spreemptive exculpation of the Bajrang Dal - his claim that he hadauthoritative information that the organisation was not involved inthe crime. Another was BJP president Kushabhau Thakre's assertion thatChristian missionaries were inviting trouble through their activities.He said: "I appeal to the missionaries that they are sitting on astack of hay. They better be careful."

Thakre's remarks conformed to a pattern of morally dubious conduct bythe Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliate organisationsafter the Staines murder. In what could only be construed as a grossact of dishonouring the dead, Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice-presidentGiriraj Kishore asserted that the work of Graham Staines amidstleprosy sufferers was a facade, since there were no such people withina wide radius of where he lived and worked. As an intervention in anemotionally fraught situation, this was only slightly less coarse thanthat of Hindu Jagran Manch's Orissa unit president Subhash Chouhan. Hesaid that Graham Staines was killed because he was engaged inproselytisation. The pattern set in the aftermath of the killing wasvery clear. Adherents to the RSS worldview who happen to be in theGovernment felt obliged to issue deprecatory noises. But those outsidethe Government felt few such restraints.

EASTERN PRESS AGENCYAustralian Christian missionary Graham Stewart Staines with wifeGlade and children Philip, Esther and Timothy, in a picture from thefamily album.

A three-member team of Cabinet Ministers visited the site of themurder as part of the Government's crisis management strategy. Priorto his departure to the spot, Union Minister for Steel and MinesNaveen Patnaik made it clear that he looked at the event through themiasma of his antagonism to the Orissa unit of the Congress(I).Defence Minister George Fernandes and Human Resource DevelopmentMinister Murli Manohar Joshi chose a strategy of prudence in advanceof their visit - the former because he is a key member of the BJP-ledGovernment's crisis management effort and the latter because of hiswell-advertised proximity to hardline elements in the RSS.

The ministerial trio spent one hour at the scene of the crime. On itsreturn to Delhi, the team issued a statement which ascribedresponsibility for the crime to an "international conspiracy" by"forces which would like this Government to go". If this effectivelyruled out the culpability of the Sangh Parivar and its affiliates, theteam also urged that a judicial commission of inquiry be constitutedto look into the murder in order to uncover the conspiracy.

Shortly afterwards the Government announced, on the advice of theChief Justice of India, that a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court,Justice D.P. Wadhwa, had been appointed as a one-man commission ofinquiry into the Staines killing. Union Minister for Information andBroadcasting and Cabinet spokesman Pramod Mahajan said that theinquiry report would be completed by April, so that it could be placedin Parliament in its next session.

The Director-General for Investigations in the National Human RightsCommission, D.R. Karthikeyan, visited the scene of the crime. Hisreport is expected to be submitted by the middle of February, thoughwith the appointment of the judicial commission it could become aninput for the broader inquiry. Certain suggestions that he made in thecontext of the local police investigation, such as entrusting it tothe Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the State police andputting an officer of the rank of Superintendent in charge of it, havebeen accepted.

A two-member team from the National Commission on Minoritiescomprising James Massey and N. Neminath also went to the site. Itsreport is also expected to be an important input into the inquiries ofthe judicial commission.

APDuring their visit to Manoharpur village in Orissa a few days afterthe murder of Graham Stewart Staines and his sons, members of theCabinet team, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Human ResourceDevelopment Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Minister for Steel andMines Naveen Patnaik, make inquiries.

IN the midst of these exertions, the ambivalence of officialutterances continues to cause disquiet. It is well known that theBajrang Dal - as in the case of most organisations in the RSSconstellation - does not maintain membership rolls. Established in1984, just when the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was beginning to takeshape in the strategies of the RSS, the Bajrang Dal honed itsagitational and inflammatory skills in the lethal campaign to bringdown the mosque in Ayodhya. The slogans it crafted as part of thiscampaign still ring with menace and were often chanted by the riotousmobs which took a heavy toll of human life during the six yearsleading up to the demolition.

Many modern legal systems have a category of offence known as "hatespeech". Slogans and declamations that tend to engender a sense ofantipathy towards any group of people are an offence in themselves.And if they are issued in close temporal or spatial connection withactual incidents of violence against these groups, a directassociation is drawn. The onus is then on those who raise theinflammatory slogans to prove that there is no connection with theactual act of violence.

By this reasonable benchmark, the BJP spokesmen who have, at everyjuncture since the cycle of anti-Christian violence began, exertedthemselves in the cause of strife rather than harmony bear a share ofthe blame for the Staines killing. And their conspicuous lack ofremorse after the event has certainly contributed to the sustenance ofan atmosphere of violence. This has been most recently exemplified inthe alleged gang-rape of a Catholic nun on February 3 in Mayurbhanjdistrict in Orissa. Heinous crimes have been justified by the supposedsense of rage at the incursions of alien religions into what is deemedto be Hindu territory. For the BJP leaders who today representgovernmental authority, this has concurrently become an alibi for acomplete abdication of responsibility.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to browbeat the ElectionCommission and its critics on the anti-Muslim CD issue.

SUBIR ROY

BJP State president Kesri Nath Tripathi with senior leader LaljiTandon in Lucknow on March 30.

NO Indian political formation can even remotely match the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) when it comes to violating norms of politicaldecency, defying the law, and pursuing an outrageously divisive andsectarian agenda. The latest instance is its release on April 3 of aviciously anti-Muslim compact disc (CD) entitled Bharat ki Pukar (thecall of India) as part of its campaign material for the Uttar PradeshAssembly elections.

The BJP has disowned the CD and feigned ignorance of how it got to becommissioned, written, approved and released — without sincerelyapologising for it. Worse, it has tried to turn the tables on aconstitutional authority, the Election Commission, as well as itspolitical opponents. It has also used threats and intimidation toresist reasonable pressure to play by the ground rules of electoralpolitics.

Even more disgracefully for the Indian political system, the BJP hasfor all practical purposes got away with its offensive conduct. Asthis is being written, during the third round of polling in the seven-phase U.P. elections, it seems highly unlikely that the BJP will bemade to pay politically for its defiance of the prohibition againstusing hate speech to win votes, itself a crime against democracy.

The Election Commission issued the BJP a notice asking the party toexplain why it should not be punished under the Representation of thePeople Act, 1951 and its Model Code of Conduct, which was in forcewhen the CD was released. But the BJP, true to type, launched acounter-offensive and tried to divert attention from this centralissue by demanding that Naveen Chawla, one of the ElectionCommissioners, recuse himself from hearing its case. It took thissecondary issue to the Supreme Court on April 13, which has deferredits hearing to May 8.

Regrettably, the BJP has thus succeeded in getting any resolution ofthe issues raised by the CD postponed until it ceases to matter forthe all-important election campaign in U.P.

Now, it can hardly be disputed that the CD is flagrantly anti-Muslim.It perversely portrays all Muslims as anti-Hindu and anti-national.They are depicted as duplicitous devils: they trick Hindus intoselling them cows by pretending they will look after them, only tobutcher them in a gory way. They oppress their own women and turn theminto mere reproductive machines - so as to change India's demographicbalance.

The CD shows Muslim men abducting innocent Hindu girls and elopingwith them - only to convert them forcibly. (The effect of this wasreinforced in real life by the systematic hounding of mixed couplesfrom Bhopal and elsewhere, and by orchestrated "protests" againsttheir marriage, including a typical Hindutva-style attack on a StarNews studio in Mumbai.)

The CD was clearly calculated to incite hatred against a religiouscommunity, divide citizens, and provoke a militant reaction - probablywith a view to triggering a Hindu-communal backlash. There is nothingvague or unambiguous of its purpose: it is to win votes in U.P., wherethe BJP faces a double-or-nothing prospect.

It simply will not do for the BJP to pretend that the CD wasunauthorised and produced by a junior-level "worker" without priorapproval by the party's top leaders, including Lalji Tandon and Stateunit president Kesri Nath Tripathi. According to Virendra Singh,director of the Bulandshehr-based Fakira Films, which produced the CD,the State BJP leadership was consulted "at every stage of the writingof the CD" and whenever the script was "modified... and fine-tuned..." This stands to reason. Withdrawing the CD cannot mitigate theoriginal offence because the disc is in circulation and has beenviewed by large numbers of people - in excerpts aired on television,as well as original copies.

V.V. KRISHNAN

The controversial CD.

Prima facie, there is an irrefutable case against the BJP forviolating the election law in a depraved manner and for offendingSections of the Indian Penal Code that pertain to spreading hatredagainst a particular group or using appeals to religious identity andwhich prohibit and punish the use of inflammatory communal material.

The Election Commission was not only right to issue a notice to theBJP, it was duty-bound to act against it. Logically, such action cantake many forms: publicly reprimanding the BJP, imposing a hefty fine,and derecognising it at least so far as the use of the lotus symbol isconcerned. The E.C. is not merely meant to disqualify a candidate inretrospect for communal propaganda. Article 324 of the Constitutiongives it a broad mandate, which includes preventing, precluding andpunishing the use of such propaganda during elections.

The "retrospective" argument just does not stand up to scrutiny. TheE.C.'s core job is to do all it can to prohibit effectively the use ofunfair electoral practices. That is why it is empowered to requisitionpolice and paramilitary forces, transfer and appoint civil servants,and set rules for the conduct of the electoral process in its minutestdetails.

Implicit in, and central to, the E.C.'s function as a statutoryauthority is preventive and pre-emptive action so as to guard thesanctity of elections. To use an analogy, its principal task is not topunish arsonists but to prevent fires, which vitiate the selection ofthe people's representatives - a process vital and indispensable todemocracy. The E.C. would be perfectly within its powers to demand anexplicit, binding commitment from any political party that it will notuse communal means of canvassing electoral support, a breach of whichwould automatically entail disqualification and derecognition.

The case for doing so is especially strong because only last December,the BJP officially released a CD similar to the April avatar. This wasdone during its National Council meeting in Lucknow, where the CDfeatured as part of the press kit. The BJP fully owns and stands bythis CD. It cannot claim innocence about its cousin/derivative.

It has since produced equally obnoxious advertisements questioning thepatriotic intentions of Muslims through the caption: Kya inka iradaPak hai? (Are their intentions pure). Several of its top leaders,including its chief ministerial candidate Kalyan Singh, have publiclydefended their content as "truthful".

The plain truth is that the BJP has tried to browbeat its opponents -by raising a diversionary issue and by resorting to the melodramatic(but mercifully aborted) tactic of courting arrest and launching aself-righteous protest agitation against the E.C.'s notice. (It isanother matter that it also put up a dummy candidate in Tandon'sconstituency - his own son - in case the U.P. BJP's topmost leaderfaces punitive action.)

This is not the first time that the BJP has resorted to bluff andbluster, by threatening a "mass agitation", by pretending that anyE.C. action against it would amount to an "electoral emergency", andby creating a climate of fear. This is a familiar tactic. It takesrecourse to majoritarianism and arouses concern that should a Hindutvaforce be even brought to book, the consequences in the form ofdisruption of order would be unacceptable.

The BJP did exactly this after the Babri Masjid was demolished inDecember 1992, when it prevailed upon the Centre to allow the patentlyillegal makeshift Ram-Lala temple built on its rubble to remain.Indeed, even before that ghastly episode, our courts were reluctant totake pre-emptive action except of a tokenist variety against it. Sowas the government, which retreated each time the BJP adopted anaggressive posture.

Here too, the fear of a "majoritarian backlash" trumped allconsiderations of constitutional propriety, defence of secularism andplain legality. Since December 1992, no government has dared to assertthe law of the land. Nor have the demolition's planners andperpetrators been brought to book.

A similar fear gripped the Establishment after the Gujarat pogrom. TheCentre failed to dismiss the BJP-ruled State government although ithad caused, and continued to preside over, a total breakdown of allconstitutional order: even High Court judges and senior policeofficers had to flee their homes in fear. The Opposition too failed tomount enough pressure on the Centre to impose President's Rule, forwhich there has never been, and could not have been, a fitter case.

Worse, elections were allowed to be held while a whole community hadbeen terrorised, democratic governance had collapsed, and free andfair canvassing, polling and exercise of rational choices had becomeimpossible — given the continuing harassment and intimidation ofMuslims, inflamed Hindu-communal sentiments, the BJP-VHP's (VishwaHindu Parishad) goonda raj, and the prevalence of a generalisedclimate of fear.

All that the E.C.'s initial and salutary intervention in Gujaratresulted in was postponement of the elections by a few months - whenthe obvious remedy was President's Rule, followed by full return tonormalcy and systematic prosecution of the pogrom's perpetrators. TheSupreme Court's off-the-cuff pronouncements indicating its oppositionto deferring elections did not help.

The Establishment, in effect, has repeatedly permitted the BJP to holdand exercise a veto over vital political processes, exercise of policeand prosecution powers, and the running of the administration incrisis situations such that it would be suborned by the forces ofHindu communalism.

This does not argue that the Indian government/Establishment hasturned actively communal over the years, only that it has madedeplorable compromises with Hindu communalists or passively acceptedthat they deserve to be treated differently from other communalists,as well as secularists. It is both noteworthy and shameful that theworst abuses of freedom and the most ferocious attacks on democracy,secularism and the rule of law in India's recent history have occurredin situations where Hindu communalism was ascendant or rampant.

Similarly, the Establishment has allowed the BJP and its associatesvirtual veto power on a number of policies, especially thosepertaining to religion and politics, to Kashmir, to relations withPakistan and other neighbours, and to defence and national security.BJP leaders have arrogantly begun to assert such "primacy". Threeyears ago, L.K. Advani claimed: "The BJP alone can find solutions toour problems with Pakistan because Hindus will never think whatever wehave done is a sell-out."

The underlying assumption seems to be that by virtue of beingmajoritarian or Hindu-communal, the BJP or the Sangh Parivar is a moreauthentic representative of Indian opinion than other politicalcurrents or parties. Nothing could be more false. Looked athistorically, the BJP has been a minority current in Indian politicsuntil the 1990s. Even at its peak, it has never commanded more than aquarter of the national vote.

Even more important, the assumption is dangerously misguided andunbecoming of a society and state that aspires to be secular bydrawing a line of basic demarcation between religion and politics. Itsimply cannot accord primacy to a particular religious group by virtueof its large numbers.

This situation must be remedied. That can only happen when progressivepolitical opinion and civil society pressure is mounted on theEstablishment so that it stands up to the bullying tactics of themajoritarian communalists. One must hope that the E.C. will set apositive example in the CD case.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2408/stories/20070504002810800.htm

Volume 17 - Issue 13, June 24 - July 07, 2000India's National Magazinefrom the publishers of THE HINDU

COMMUNALISM

An assault on Christians

Emboldened by the weak response of governments to attacks againstChristian places of worship, the affiliates of the Sangh Parivarunleash a new wave of terror against the community.

PARVATHI MENONin Bangalore

EVER since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliancegovernment assumed power at the Centre, there has been a low-intensitywar against Christians in India, especially nuns and priests, bygroups and organisations loyal to the Sangh Par ivar. A wave ofattacks against Christian evangelists and places of worship through1998 culminated in the murder of the Australian missionary GrahamStaines and his two sons on January 23, 1999. Dara Singh, a Hindutvafanatic with links to the Sangh Par ivar, has been arrested in thatconnection. A second wave of terror against Christian missionaries,that extends now to the States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab andAndhra Pradesh, has culminated this June in a series of bomb blasts inchurches in Ka rnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh.

SHERWIN CRASTO/APDuring a peace march in Mumbai on June 17, Christian priests carry aportrait of Brother George Kuzhikandam, who was bludgeoned to death inMathura.

The bombs that went off in churches in the towns of Vasco in Goa, Wadiin Karnataka, and Ongole and Tadepalligudem in Andhra Pradesh, pointto a qualitatively new phase in the campaign of organised violenceagainst Christians in the country. Although the identity of the forcesbehind the blasts is yet to be established, the nature of the attacks,their target and timing, point the finger of suspicion at the SanghParivar. In fact, the month of May alone saw two bomb attacks inAndhra Pradesh; the first in Machlipatnam where 30 persons wereinjured in a bomb blast at a prayer meeting on May 21, and another inVikarabad where an explosive device planted in a church wasfortunately defused in time. The simultaneous bomb blasts in the fourtowns suggest th at the perpetrators have been emboldened by what hasbeen seen as a weak and non-serious state response to the terrorcampaign so far.

At 6 a.m. on June 8, a bomb exploded on the precincts of the St. AnnCatholic Church in the industrial town of Wadi in Gulbarga, shatteringglass panes. A second blast occurred at 9 a.m. after the police hadreached the spot, surveyed the area and recove red residual materialof the earlier blast. When a car parked in the church precincts wasmoved, a tin box was found protruding from the ground. But it explodedbefore the bomb disposal squad could defuse it. One person was injuredin the blast. Wadi has a Christian population of about 80 families.

Around the same time a blast at the St. Andrews Church in Vasco insouth Goa shattered windowpanes and twisted grills out of shape. At8-15 a.m. that day, the Gewett Memorial Baptist Church in Ongole wasthe scene of a bomb blast which because it took pl ace after themorning service, only injured three persons. A bomb went off at theMother Vannini Catholic Church at Tadepalligudem in West Godavaridistrict, around the same time.

The police have already established certain significant facts withregard to the blasts. "We are now certain that the same group ofconspirators were behind all the three blasts," C. Dinakaran, Director-General of Police, Karnataka, told Frontline . In all the cases, hesaid, the timing device and the detonators used were of the same type.While in Andhra Pradesh the explosive had a plastic casing, in Goa andKarnataka the explosives were encased in tin. The bombs were placed,in all the cases, ne ar the gates or windows of the church. Gelatine,an explosive commonly used for blasting in the stone quarries andcement factories of Gulbarga in Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh was theraw material used. "The other significant fact is that all the townshave railway stations and we suspect that this may have determined thechoice of place. The conspirators possibly took trains from one placeto another," said Dinakaran.

K. RAMESH BABUInside the Mother Vannini Catholic Church at Tadepalligudem in WestGodavari district of Andhra Pradesh which was damaged in a bomb blaston June 8.

THE serial blast mark a new phase in the continuing two-year-longviolence against the Christian community in the country. The fact of aconspiracy is now clearly established. This points not only to carefuland coordinated planning, but also to new leve ls and strategies ofplanned violence suggestive of a deadly seriousness of purpose. Nolonger need mobs be mobilised in the destruction of places ofChristian worship as in the past. The terrorism of the bomb gives thecriminal a degree of invisibility, and widens the range of attack. Theserial bombs were in the nature of a message of intimidation, not justto those who work for Christian organisations but to Churchcongregations, from prayer meetings to Sunday school gatherings. Withthe perpetrators of the crime distanced from the scene of the crime,it is much easier for a compliant state machinery to give themprotection. The fear of indiscriminate strikes anywhere and at anytime has already created a sense of panic amongst Christians. Afterall , ifa bomb can be planted in a town as innocuous as Wadi, it couldhappen anywhere in the country.

"I read in all this a pattern of violence. These were similarexplosive devices that were used, " Fr. Dr.H.R. Donald De Souza,deputy secretary-general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Indiatold Frontline. "We suspect an organised movement b y fundamentalistgroups who have been emboldened by the inaction of the government," headded.

The serial blasts give the lie to the theory of 'secular violence'that the BJP and the government it heads have put out regarding therecent attacks on minorities in different parts of the country.Despite evidence to the contrary, the government held t hat theinnumerable acts of violence against members of the Christiancommunity, in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and elsewhere, was not communallymotivated but were incidents of "dacoity and loot" by "criminalgangs".

According to the United Christian Forum for Human Rights (UCFHR),there have been 35 recorded anti-Christian crimes between January andJune this year. The most recent of these was the murder of BrotherGeorge Kuzhikandam, who was bludgeoned to death in the Paulus MemorialSchool in Navada, Mathura, in U.P. on June 7. Within days of thisincident, a group of nuns were attacked in Mathura by a couple ofscooter-borne assailants. In the case of George Kuzhikandam, U.P.Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta ins isted that money was the motivebehind the murder. "The BJP and the State government reach conclusionseven before the police start investigation," John Dayal, nationalconvener of the UCFHR said. "Why would a gang of thugs choose to killa poor priest i n his school during the holidays ? Or attack nuns whorun a convent school that charges the lowest fees in the area?" Dayalsaid that the U.P. Police had promised to post police units atChristian institutions but these were soon withdrawn. "A police outpost was stationed at the nuns' ashram in Agra. They proved more of anuisance as they insisted on being fed and looked after, and were inany case taken off duty a few days later!" The U.P. government's standon the attacks received support from an unexpected quarter. TheNational Minorities Commission (NMC) sent an investigative team to theAgra-Mathura region and its report upheld the official view that thecases of physical viol ence and murder were committed by anti-socialelements. "The NMC report was prepared by nominees of the presentgovernment. So it is not surprising that they arrived at theconclusion they did,"said Fr. Donald De Souza. "A group of Christianparliamentar ians led by P.C. Thomas conducted another enquiry and onthe basis of the same evidence wholly disagreed with the NMC report,"he added.

THE BJP responded to the serial blasts even before the government did.While the Home Ministry "waited for reports from the States," the BJPannounced that the blasts were the handiwork of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which, it said, is bent on fomentinghatred between Hindus and Christians in the country. Prime MinisterAtal Behari Vajpayee had no information to give as to what action theState governments had taken when a delegation from the UCFHR called onhim three days after the bl ast. By then police investigations couldnot establish any ISI involvement.

K. RAMESH BABUThe facade of the church.

Preliminary investigations into the blasts appear to discount thetheory of ISI involvement. "We cannot rule out anything," said DGPDinakaran. "But if an organisation as well-funded as the ISI isinvolved, we expect they would use more sophisticated bom bs. Why mustthey depend on gelatine and not the more expensive and deadly RDX(research department explosive)?"

Christian leaders attach importance to the proliferation of hate-literature that has provided the fuel for the attacks, and which alsoprovides evidence, for a law enforcing agency that wishes to use suchevidence, of who is behind the violence. Hate-lit erature is freelyprinted and distributed in States where the Sangh Parivar is active,and in States where the BJP is in government or is an ally of thegovernment, as in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Most hate-pamphlets donot carry the name of an organis ation that has an address. Forexample, there are pamphlets signed by the 'Hindu Jagaran Manch,Kashi', or by 'Supporters of Dara Singh, the God Who Descended fromHeaven'. While some of the books are directly incendiary, others comein the garb of work s of historical 'research', and yet others arebooks/pamphlets on how to harass Christian missionaries in order toprevent them from proselytising. For example, a booklet published inGujarat suggests that one way to prevent missionaries from working isto foist false cases on them so that they are always tied up in thecourts.

These are faceless, addressless, front organisations of the SanghParivar. If the law enforcing mechanism is slow in apprehending theculprits in an attack of communally motivated violence, it is evenslower in tracing and taking action against the print ers and peddlersof hate-literature. The environment in all the three States where theserial blasts occurred has been vitiated by the activities of theSangh Parivar. "We are alarmed at the statements of important peoplein the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamseva k Sangh) and the BJP, such as B.K.Modi and Ashok Singhal, who have been talking of the need to build apan Buddhist-Hindu alliance against Christianity and Islam in SouthAsia," said Dayal. "The RSS chief speaks of an "Epochal War". Whatdoes all this m ean?" he asked. The NDA government has already sweptthe uncomfortable issue of the serial blasts, which they were brieflyconfronted with, under the carpet. A passing worry presented itselfwhen Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu was reported tohave tol d a delegation of Christian leaders that he would evenconsider withdrawing support to the BJP-led government if the rightsof the minorities were not protected. But that concern too wasdispelled when the Telugu Desam Party leader denied that he had sai danything of the sort.

To the Christians in the country, the targets of a sustained two-year-long cycle of violence, there is little room for comfort. And forassurances there are few positive measures that have been taken fortheir protection.

The Sangh Parivar's violent hatred against Christianity is deep-rootedand decades old, as is the case with its animosity against severalother communities.

A. G. NOORANI

ON December 4, 1998, nearly 23 million Christians across the countryobserved a protest day demanding that the governments at the Centreand in the States check the growing violence against members of thecommunity. A letter of protest, drawn up by the United Christians'Forum for Human Rights (UCFHR), said: "Since January 1998 there hasbeen more violence against the Christian community than in all the 50years of the country's Independence. Nuns have been raped, priestsexecuted, Bibles burnt, churches demolished, educational institutionsdestroyed and religious people harassed." This is persecution in thestrict dictionary meaning of the word "pursue with enmity and ill-treatment". Mabel Rebello of the Congress(I) told the Rajya Sabha thatday that "50 per cent of these (incidents) have occurred in Gujaratwhere the BJP is in power".

On October 8, Gujarat's Director-General of Police, C.P. Singh,confirmed in an interview to Teesta Setalvad, co-editor of CommunalismCombat (October 1998): "One thing was clear in the pattern ofincidents. It was the activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad andBajrang Dal who were taking the law into their own hands, which poseda serious danger to peace in Gujarat. Many of the attacks on theminorities were after these organisations had whipped up localpassions of conversions (by Christian missionaries) and allegedlyforced inter-religious marriages... our investigations revealed thatin most cases these were entirely baseless allegations."

Two disturbing features of the campaign stand out in bold relief. Oneis that the attacks mounted steeply after the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government assumed office in March 1998. The Archbishop of Delhi,Alan de Lastic, said: "What I have noticed is that ever since thisGovernment came to power at the Centre, the attacks on Christians andChristian missionaries have increased" (Sunday, November 22). Theother is the Government's wilful refusal to condemn them. PrimeMinister Atal Behari Vajpayee's remarks on December 5 were virtuallyforced out of him. Union Home Minister L.K. Advani has been false tohis oath of office ("do right to all manner of people in accordancewith the Constitution and the law without fear or favour, affection orill-will"). He said in Baroda on August 2 (The Hindu, August 3):"There is no law and order problem in Gujarat." Three days later theDGP said, according to The Hindustan Times (August 6), that "the VHPand the Bajrang Dal were taking the law into their own hands." He alsosaid that incidents of communal violence had increased manifold overthe last few months; recently the crime rate in the State hadincreased by as much as 9.6 per cent. On an average, 39 crimes ofserious nature like murder, rape and dacoity were reported in theState every day." A member of the investigation team sent by theMinorities Commission revealed: "After initial reluctance, theofficials named VHP and Bajrang Dal allegedly involved in the mobattacks on Christians and Muslims" (The Indian Express, August 12).Advani's certificate of good conduct speaks for itself.

Christians did not rush to register their protest, as they did onDecember 4, but for long kept pleading for succour. On October 1, thenational secretary of the All India Catholic Union (AICU), John Dayal,pointedly remarked: "The AICU is surprised that Union Government andmembers of the ruling coalition, including the BJP, have not come outcategorically in denouncing the violence against Christians."

The Bajrang Dal has threatened Christian-run educational institutionsin Karnataka with dire consequences if they did not "Hinduise" them.Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Rajendra Singh declared at an RSScamp in Meerut on November 22: "Muslims and Christians will have toaccept Hindu culture as their own if Hindus are to treat them asIndians" (an Agence France Presse: report in The Asian Age; November23). The UCFHR bitterly complained in an open letter published onNovember 19: "The state has failed to do its duty in protecting thelife, dignity and property of the victims. At many places, it seems asif the Centre and the State governments have tacitly supported thecommunal groups. How is it otherwise that the State governments havenot taken any action against the virulent and anti-national statementsof the VHP, RSS, Jagran Manch and Bajrang Dal?" (emphasis added,throughout).

While the Sangh Parivar's animosity towards Muslims is well-known, itsattitude towards Christians has taken many people by surprise. But,Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Giriraj Kishore said inChandigarh on November 25: "Today the Christians constitute a greaterthreat than the collective threat from separatist Muslim elements."Describing G. S. Tohra, president of the Shiromani Gurdwara PrabandhakCommittee, as a "separatist", he said, "all minorities includingMuslims and Christians must accept that their ancestors were Hindus."Ergo, they must all return to the Hindu fold.

Violence in speech inevitably inspires violent acts. As the JaganmohanReddy Commission that went into the Ahmedabad riots (1969) noted, oncecommunal tension is created in a city, all that is needed is "only amatch to set on fire and a fan to fan the city ablaze." Riots eruptover trifling incidents only because the atmosphere has been fouledup. Hence, the need for "a proper appreciation of the communalatmosphere in a State, in a town or in any particular area," theCommission stressed. Those who spread hate are the real perpetratorsof violence. The ones who wield the weapon are their mindless agents.

We have tended to ignore a fact that brooks no neglect - the realcause of the communal riots is the rise of the Sangh Parivar. Therewas communal peace even in the early years after Partition. A HomeMinistry review presented to the National Integration Council in 1968noted: "From 1954 to 1960, there was a clear and consistent downwardtrend, 1960 being a remarkably good year with only 26 communalincidents in the whole country. This trend was sharply reversed in1961. "That was when riots erupted in Jabalpur - thanks to the JanSangh, the BJP's ancestor. Communal violence has not "looked back"since.

Justice P. Venugopal, a former Judge of the Madras High Court, whoinquired into Hindu-Christian clashes in Kanyakumari district in March1982, noted: "The RSS adopts a militant and aggressive attitude andsets itself as the champion of what it considers to be the rights ofHindus against minorities. It has taken upon itself the task to teachthe minority their place and if they are not willing to learn theirplace, teach them a lesson. The RSS has given respectability tocommunalism and communal riots and demoralise administration (sic).The RSS methodology for provoking communal violence is: (a) rousingcommunal feelings in the majority community by the propaganda thatChristians are not loyal citizens of this country..." Report afterreport has indicted the RSS specifically or its affiliates (Ahmedabad1969; Bhiwandi 1970; Tellicherry 1971; Jamshedpur 1981; and Mumbai1993).

VIOLENCE is an integral part of the RSS credo. "It should be used as asurgeon's knife... to cure the society... Sometimes to protect non-violence itself violence becomes necessary," RSS leader M.S. Golwalkarsaid in 1952. (Spotlights: Guruji Answers, pages 110 and 188). In hisfine work India as a Secular State, Donald Eugene Smith recalled thedesecration of a church in Bihar in 1955 and the almost totaldestruction in 1957 of the Gass Memorial Centre at Raipur.

V.D. Savarkar wrote repeatedly in his book Hindutva (1923): "Hindutvais different from Hinduism." For once, he was right. Hinduism is agreat religion, it is ancient. Hindutva is an ideology of hate. It isrecent. He grouped Muslims and Christians together as ones who do notshare "the tie of the common homage we pay to our great civilisation -our Hindu culture." He added: "Christian and Mohammedan communitieswho were but very recently Hindus... cannot be recognised as Hindus assince their adoption of the new cult they had ceased to own Hinducivilisation (Sanskriti) as a whole... For though Hindusthan to themis Fatherland, as to any other Hindu, yet it is not to them a Holylandtoo. Their holyland is far off in Arabia or Palestine."

They are not the only offenders: "Look at the Jews; neither centuriesof prosperity nor sense of gratitude for the shelter they found canmake them more attached or even equally attached to the severalcountries they inhabit."

Golwalkar revealed on May 15, 1963 that his first book We or OurNationhood Defined was based on Savarkar's brother Babarao's book inMarathi on the same theme, Rashtra Mimamsa. Golwalkar's second book,Bunch of Thoughts, praised the book Hindutva and amplified itsideology. The BJP has used it as a political weapon with dangerousconsequences. Chapter XII of Bunch of Thoughts is devoted to three"Internal Threats" - Muslims, Christians and the Communists. Of thefirst two he wrote: "Together with the change in their faith, gone arethe spirit of love and devotion for the nation. Nor does it end there.They have also developed a feeling of identification with the enemiesof this land. They look to some foreign lands as their holy places."They are asked to return to the Hindu fold.

Not that that will be of much help. "For a Hindu, he gets the firstsanskar when he is still in his mother's womb... We are, therefore,born as Hindus. About the others, they are born to this world assimple unnamed human beings and later on, either circumcised orbaptised, they become Muslims or Christians." The hatred isunconcealed. They have no right to proselytise. Hindus alone have it,for, "returning to one's ancestral faith is not conversion at all, itis merely home-coming."

Bunch of Thoughts first appeared in 1966 but the good work has beenstepped up since. To the three "internal threats", a fourth is added -"Nehruism" - and among the perils we face is "Macaulayism". In Delhifunctions an outfit, Voice of India, which proclaims: "We are notgeneral booksellers and handle only books listed in this catalogue.Please do not ask for other books." It is an outfit with a mission.For the catalogue has an "appeal" which reads thus: "Hindu society andculture are faced with a crisis. There is a united front of entrenchedalien forces - Islam, Christianity, Communism, Nehruism - to disruptand discredit the perennial values of the Indian ethos. All who carefor India need to know what is happening, and what is to be done if amajor tragedy is to be averted. Voice of India aims at providing anideological defence of Hindu society and culture, through a series ofpublications."

SOME people were surprised by Advani's assertion at a seminar onNovember 6 at Sarnath that "the Buddha did not announce any newreligion. He was only restating with a new emphasis the ancient idealsof the Indo-Aryan civilisation." The Buddha, he added, derived histeaching from the Bhagvad Gita and was an avatar of Vishnu. Rebuttalsfrom Buddhists were swift and sharp (see "Hindutva's fallacies andfantasies", Frontline, December 4, 1998).

However, no one familiar with the stuff churned out by this factory,for over four decades, would have been surprised. Its literature isintolerant of any cultural and religious diversity. It fosters a siegementality among Hindus and speaks disparagingly of all others - notexcluding Sikhs and Jews. That is not all. A Hindu who does not shareits bigotry is attacked as being "anti-Hindu". Its literaturerepresents the spirit, outlook and ethos of the Sangh Parivar. Thewritings cited below reveal a revolting virulence. Its moving spiritis one Sita Ram Goel.

The Parivar's organ Organiser only recently (October 18, 1998)published a paper he had written in 1983. He wrote: "The English-educated Hindu elite which controls the commanding heights ingovernment, educational institutions and mass media has failed thetest either because it has become indifferent to Hindu society, as aresult of having imbibed the current cosmopolitan culture, or becauseit has been trained to look at Hindu society through eyes which arenot of its own ancestral culture and, as a result, has becomesceptical about, if not actually hostile to, the merits of Hindusociety. This desperate situation has been made more difficult by adegenerate politics through which vote-hungry, sloganised, short-sighted and nominally Hindu politicians weaken Hindu society bydividing it on the basis of caste, sect, language and region, disarmHindu society by sanctimonious and one-sided appeals in the name oftraditional Hindu tolerance, strengthen alienated and aggressivecommunities by supporting their separatist demands in the name ofsecularism." His intolerance brings all within the sway of hisindictment, bar the Parivar itself.

TO return to Advani's notions on Buddhism, a pamphlet entitled"Buddhism vis-a-vis Hinduism" published 40 years ago by Ram Swarup forthe outfit asserts: "Buddha, his spiritual experiences and teachings,formed part of a Hindu tradition... A good Buddhist has perforce to bea good Hindu too." He went on to attack "foreign" religions. "Theindigenous religions of the countries of the two Americas have beencompletely overwhelmed. In the African sub-continent (sic) the localreligions are under a systematic attack from Islamic and Christianideologies." The Parivar takes a dim view of the United States.

Golwalkar was asked in July 1967: "What is your opinion about present-day America?" There was lot to comment about - racial conflict,Vietnam policy, and so on. All he could say was: "Do you not yourselfsee that the American youth is fast dissipating himself in all kindsof sensual indulgence?" Simplistic, sweeping, defamatory judgmentcomes easily to the tribe.

Ram Swarup's tract Hinduism vis-a-vis Christianity and Islam continuedhis refrain about "native" faiths. "What is happening in India is alsohappening elsewhere. In America even the vestiges of once (sic), arich spiritual culture of the Indians, is no more." He developed thetheme in its sequel Hindu View of Christianity and Islam (1992). "Thetwo ideologies have been active and systematic persecutors of pagannations, cultures and religions... We have spoken here with sympathyand respect not only of pagan Americas and Africa but also of thepagan past of Egypt, Greece, Rome, Iran, Syria and Arabia." V.S.Naipaul is in good company with the Sangh Parivar. Unlike him, itindicts Christianity as well as Islam on this score.

"Hinduism can help all peoples seeking religious self-renewal, for itpreserves in some way their old Gods and religions, it preserves inits various layers religious traditions and intuitions they have lost.Many countries now under Christianity and Islam had once greatreligions; they also had great Gods who adequately fulfilled theirspiritual and ethical needs... during the long period of neglect, theylost the knowledge which could revive those Gods, Hinduism can helpthem with this knowledge. In its simplest aspect, Europeans can beststudy their old pre-Christian religion by studying Hinduism."

Ram Swarup goes on to quote approvingly: "Gore Vidal says that from a'barbaric Bronze Age text known as Old Testament, three anti-humanreligions have evolved - Judaism, Christianity and Islam'; he alsocalls them 'sky-god religions'."

Ram Swarup damns all three religions as "great persecutors". The Hinduresponse of old was wrong. He writes:

"First, they tried to 'reform' themselves and be like their rulers...One God, a revealed Book and prophets.... The Brahmo Samaj, the AryaSamaj, and the Akalis also claimed monotheism and iconoclasm ... inthe case of the Akalis, the new look has also become the basis of anew separatist-militant politics....

"The second way the Hindus adopted was that of 'synthesis'. Thesynthesizers claimed that all religions preach the same thing. Theyfound in the Bible and the Quran all the truths of the Upanishads andvice versa. They culled passages from various scriptures to provetheir point... It is by such methods that they proved that the Bibleand the Quran were no different from the Upanishads...."

The wrath wells up as he proceeds and delivers a message whichexplains why the country has had to undergo what it has all theseyears, especially since 1990: "India became politically free in 1947,but it is ruled by anti-Hindu Hindus. The old mental slavery continuesand it has yet to win its cultural and intellectual independence.India is entering into the second phase of its freedom struggle; thestruggle for regaining its Hindu identity. The new struggle is asdifficult as the old one. Hindus are disorganised, self-alienated,morally and ideologically disarmed. They lack leadership; the Hinduelites have become illiterate about their spiritual heritage andhistory and indifferent and even hostile towards their religion...India's higher education, its academia and media are in the hands of aHindu-hating elite."

Note what Ram Swarup has to say of the caste system:

"Once when Hinduism was strong, castes represented a natural andhealthy diversity, but now in its present state of weakness these areused for its dismemberment. Old vested interests joined by new oneshave come together to make use of the caste factor in a big way inorder to keep Hindus down.

"Hindus have been kept down too long. Everyone including the victimsthink that it is the natural order of things. Therefore, now when theHindu society is showing some signs of stir, there is a greatconsternation. Already a cry has gone out of Hindu fundamentalism, wemust expect more of it in future." The readers have been warned. ButIndia will not be the only country to be saved. "America is awaitingto be rediscovered in a characteristically Hindu way, not theChristian way".

THIS represents a worse-than-narrow world-view. It is redolent of thebigotry of medieval times. This book was published in 1992. Hisearlier pamphlet, "Cultural Self-Alienation and Some Problems HinduismFaces", also characterised "castes and denominations" as expressing a"natural and healthy diversity". The ignorance is astounding. "ToMarx, the British conquest of India was a blessing." Hinduism facesattacks "both from inside and outside. While the forces of self-alienation are increasing within society, external enemies haveintensified their attack.... Communism, Islam, Christianity havepowerful international links... their World-Centres. Commu-nists havetheir Comintern working overtly or covertly." By 1987, Ram Swarupought to have known that the Comintern was dissolved on May 22, 1943and that the "Islamic International, a kind of Muslim Vatican, Rabitahal'-alam al-Iscaniya" (Muslim World League) is a Saudi-sponsored non-governmental organisation (1962) which counts for little in India.Hindus, by comparison, are at a disadvantage, he moans. "They do noteven have a government of their own." Socially, they are falling preyto "vulgarity"; that is, "gambling, drinking, vulgar film music...Cinemas (sic) are becoming great moral and social pollutants."

ANU PUSHKARNAThe Christian missionary centre at Nawapara in Jhabua district,Madhya Pradesh, where four nuns were gangraped on September 23.

So, combat these and go over to the offensive and "look at Islam,Christianity and Communism... from the Hindu angle." Sikhs are notspared. Ram Swarup adopts a dual approach in Hindu-Sikh Relationship(1985). He woos them as "the members of Hindu society" and denouncesthem for thinking that "they were different". Base motives are freelyattributed: "Thanks to the Green Revolution and various other factors,the Sikhs have become relatively more rich and prosperous. No wonder,they have begun to find that the Hindu bond is not good enough forthem and they seek a new identity readily available to them in theirnames and outer symbols. This is an understandable human frailty."

He defends the storming of the Golden Temple. It "became an arsenal, afort, a sanctuary for criminals. This grave situation called fornecessary action which caused some unavoidable damage to thebuilding." There followed "protest meetings, resolutions", which hedeprecates. "The whole thing created wide-spread resentment all overIndia which burst into a most unwholesome violence when Mrs. IndiraGandhi was assassinated. The befoggers have again got busy and theyexplain the whole tragedy in terms of collusion between thepoliticians and the police. But this conspiracy theory cannot explainthe range and the virulence of the tragedy. A growing resentment atthe arrogant Akali politics is the main cause of this fearfulhappening."

This is of a piece with the Organiser's defence of Mahatma Gandhi'sassassination in its editorial (January 11, 1970) - "turned thepeople's wrath on himself." Its editor then, K.R. Malkani, is now vice-president of the BJP.

SITA RAM GOEL does not lag behind. His pamphlet "Hindu Society underSiege" (1981) paints a frightening future: "The death of Hindu societyis no longer an eventuality which cannot be envisaged. This greatsociety is now besieged by the same dark and deadly forces which haveoverwhelmed and obliterated many ancient societies. Suffering from aloss of its elan, it has become a house divided within itself... Hindusociety is in mortal danger as never before."

One is reminded of the loonies of California, the minutemen who livedin dread of a Soviet conquest of the U.S. The familiar ghosts of oldare revived - "Islamism", "Christianism" and a new one to keep themcompany, "Macaulay-ism" (the educated Hindu who rejects the Parivar'svoodoo credo and the mumbo-jumbo of its shrill rhetoric).

"Ideologically, Communism in India is, in several respects, a sort ofextension of Macaulayism, a residue of British rule. That is whyCommunism is strongest today in those areas where Macaulayism hadspread its widest spell." In no other parts of the country, though,are Indian languages and culture more highly respected than in WestBengal and Kerala. "Macaulayism is wedded to Secularism and Democracy.It has to find out for itself as to who are the enemies of Secularismand Democracy and who their best friends. This can be done only bylooking beyond the United Front of Islamism, Communism andChristianism."

In the U.S., the minutemen belonged to the lunatic fringe. In India,the Parivar's ideology is espoused by the party in power, even if itbe through dubious alliances. Scruples are not the Parivar'sstrongpoint. On April 4, 1980, L.K. Advani and A.B. Vajpayee endorseda formulation in the National Executive of the Janata Party whichpledged its members to accept "unconditionally and strive to preservethe composite culture and secular state established in our country."After splitting the Janata Party both rejected the concept of India's"composite culture." On April 8, 1998, at the BJP's Agra session, itsthen president, Advani, denounced the concept of composite culture -just as the Jan Sangh had done in December 1969.

HARSH NARAIN was a Visiting Professor at Aligarh Muslim University andReader at the North-Eastern Hill University. His Myths of CompositeCultural and Equality of Religions (1990) reveals the unspokenthoughts of the Parivar; the sub-text beneath the avowed text.

"Mere permanent settlement in a country does not entitle a plundererto be looked upon as indigenous. It must first be seen whose interestshe is out to serve. What is his attitude towards Indians? Take anexample. European settlers entered America and ruined the originalinhabitants, whom they named 'Red Indians'. To expect the remainingRed Indians to regard their European-born rulers as equally indigenouswould be a cruel joke beyond their understanding.

"Islam was out to deal a death blow to the equilibrium, exuberance,and cosmopolitan character of Indian humanity, later designated asHindu culture in juxtaposition to Indian culture."

To him, the Taj and the Qutub Minar are specimens exclusively ofMuslim, not Indian, sculpture. For, he holds: "The Muslims have beenreligiously indifferent to, if not contemptuous of, Indian sculpture.Thanks to the taste of the Sufis, the Muslims took some fancy toIndian music. The main gamut of Indian literature has also beenuntinged with Muslim literature and historic-cultural allusions...Urdu language and literature, the much-vaunted symbols or vehicles ofcomposite culture, are not the result of intermingling of Hinduism andIslam but reflected the Muslim image in Indian garb... nor have theHindu heroes and servants been fortunate enough to be honoured by theMuslim community."

This can only be deliberate falsehood, since he flaunts familiaritywith Urdu. The much-maligned Iqbal wrote whole poems in praise of theBuddha, Ram, Guru Nanak, and Swami Ram Tirtha. He was an admirer ofthe Sanskrit poet, Bhartruhari, and had drunk deep at the fount of theGita and the Upanishads. Another great poet, Maulana Hasrat Mohani, aconfirmed leftist, wrote nostalgically of the soil of Mathura and inpraise of Krishna. He was also an ardent admirer of Bal GangadharTilak. But this is understandable of one who stoops to libel one ofthe greatest mystics and martyrs of all time, Mansur al-Hallaj. He wasbeheaded and his life forms the subject of the feat of scholarship,Louis Massignon's four-volume The Passion of al-Hallaj. He is accusedof converting to Islam "the Dudwalas and Pinjaris of Gujarat." Noauthority is cited in support of the charge.

Harsh Narain holds that while "a sizable section of the Sufis had beencomparatively free from the proverbial emphasis on coercion ... therole of Sufi tradition in bridging the gulf between Islam and Hinduismor laying the foundations of a composite culture has been greatlyexaggerated."

All this and more only in order to expose "the mad propaganda ofcomposite culture" and to prove that "Muslim culture cannot be said tobe an integral part of Indian culture and must be regarded as ananticulture or counter culture in our body politic." This is nodifferent from the RSS chief's demand (November 22, 1998) that theminorities Hinduise themselves.

The author turns his attention to Jainism ("failed to develop anycultural identity of its own") and Buddhism ("basically a life-negating religion, having little interest in social order, strictlyspeaking"). Conclusion? "Our national culture, Indian culture, is aunity describable as Aryan culture, Hindu culture... Indian culture isHindu culture... Muslim and Christian cultures are counter-cultures."And Parsi culture is "something like" a sub-culture.

So "Hindu culture alone deserves the credit of recognition as thenational culture (abhimanin) of this country, as the culture owningand possessing this great nation, along with other Indian-borncultures like Buddhist and Jain cultures as its sub-cultures; Muslimand Christian cultures being in the nature of tenant-cultures. Thedistinction of master-possessor-owner culture and tenant-parasiticculture has its own significance." One can guess what he is hintingat.

Sita Ram Goel writes in the same vein. His ardour is reflected in histhree books Catholic Ashrams, Papacy and History of Hindu-ChristianEncounters (304-1996). His preface to the second edition (1996) of thebook on Hindu-Christian encounters explains a lot: "The Sangh Parivar,which had turned cold towards Hindu causes over the years, wasstartled by the rout of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 1984elections, and decided to renew its Hindu character. TheRamajanmabhumi Movement was the result. The Movement was aimed atarresting Islamic aggression. Christianity or its missions were hardlymentioned. Nevertheless, it was Christianity which showed the greatestconcern at this new Hindu stir, and started crying 'wolf'. Its mediapower in the West raised a storm, saying that Hindus were out todestroy the minorities in India and impose a Nazi regime. The storm isstill raging and no one knows when it will subside, if at all." Thus"the storm" was unleashed for reasons of power through electionvictories.

Goel's writings alone prove that the Parivar's ire against Christiansis decades old. In an article published in March 1983 he had assertedthat the ancient Hindu precept sarva dharma samabhava (all religionsare equal) should not be applied to Christians or Muslims.

IT is with some hesitation that one turns to Goel's book Jesus Christ:An Artifice for Aggression (1994); so wantonly offensive it is. Thefocus now is not on the missionaries, or politics, or history. Thetarget is the faith itself; Christianity as a religion. Why? Becausehitherto "we Hindus have remained occupied with the behaviour patternsof Muslims and Christians and not with the belief systems which createthose behaviour patterns. We object to Christian missions, but refuseto discuss Christianity and its God, Jesus. We object to Islamicterrorisms, but refuse to have a look at Islamic and its prophet,Muhammad. I see no sense or logic in this Hindu habit."

Is there any other country in the world where such theses are writtenfor such a purpose? One wonders. "Now, I could see why the history ofChristianity had been what it had been. The source of the poison wasin the Jesus of the gospels."

The Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary is attacked wantonly. Thereare chapters on Jesus of history, of fiction and of faith. The thesis?He did not exist in history. "The quantum of crimes committed byMuhammad's Islam was only slightly smaller than that of the crimescommitted by the Christianity of the Jesus Christ... The parallelbetween Jesus and Hitler was seen as still more striking. The Nazicreed, as laid down by Hitler, did not sound much different from theChristian creed as preached by Jesus in the gospels."

Goel is dismayed to find that Jesus Christ "should continue to retainhis hallow" (sic) in India. "Christianity is accepted as a religionnot only by the westernised Hindu elite but also by Hindu saints,scholars, and political platforms."

Jesus Christ has been "praised to the skies, particularly by MahatmaGandhi." But, "it is high time for Hindus to learn that Jesus Christsymbolises no spiritual power, or moral uprightness. He is no morethan an artifice for legitimising wanton imperialist aggression. Theaggressors have found him to be highly profitable so far. By the sametoken, Hindus should know that Jesus means nothing but mischief fortheir country and culture. The West where he flourished for long, hasdiscarded him as junk. There is no reason why Hindus should buy him.He is the type of junk that cannot be re-cycled. He can only poisonthe environment."

THE virulence of the language reveals the depths of the hatred. Thisis what Indians are up against - a powerful hate group, enjoying thepatronage of many politicians in power and in the administration,which is out to wipe out all traces not only of secularism anddemocracy but of religious tolerance, religious and cultural diversityand, indeed, of decency itself from India.

It shall not come to pass. The answer lies not in forging a unitedfront of the minorities; it lies in a renewal of the secular ideal inour politics and in the nation at large.

No Indian Prime Minister has justified a communal pogrom the wayVajpayee has. The BJP's Goa conclave marks the lowest point inHindutva's hardline evolution, underlining the need to punish the BJPpolitically.

ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE'S public address at the April 12 BJP NationalExecutive meeting in Goa has rudely convulsed the secular conscienceof India's citizens. Many were jolted out of the complacentassumption, promoted by sections of the media, that Vajpayee is somekind of "moderate" or "liberal" - "the right man in the wrong party" -a leader "secular" at heart, whose political "compulsions" regrettablydrive him from time to time to compromise with Hindutva. Yet othersattributed the tone and tenor of his speech to his interaction withthe party's young "hardliners" immediately before the Goa meeting,such as Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie and M. Venkaiah Naidu, or to thetemporary "influence" of L.K. Advani, which made him reverse thestance he adopted during his April 4 Gujarat visit.

The significance of Vajpayee's address goes much beyond his personal"unmasking". His adoption of a virulent communal posture - which looksat Indian society in terms of a division between Hindus and Others,and accords social and political primacy to the majority community -is shocking, but not really surprising. Vajpayee has never claimed tobe secular in the sense of separating religion from politics, or evento have cut his umbilical cord to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Several public statements can be readily cited, which indicateVajpayee's ideological-political inclinations: for instance, "theSangh is my soul" (1995), "I will always remain aswayamsevak" (September 2000), the Ram temple agitation is a "nationalmovement", not a sectarian-parochial one (December 2000), and hisUttar Pradesh election speech in February 2002, in which he chidedMuslims for not voting for the BJP, but also warned them it could cometo power without their support. These are not aberrations. Nor is hisannual obeisance to the Sangh in the form of guru dakshina. Vajpayeeis as dedicated to Hindutva or "cultural nationalism" as any RSSpracharak.

The true significance of Vajpayee's disquisition in Goa lies in itsrelationship to the BJP's recent rightward evolution, and secondly, inthe new low political depths it plumbs. Never before has a PrimeMinister of India, of whatever persuasion, descended to making a hate-speech against Muslims or Christians, castigating them as "outsiders".Never before were our religious minorities humiliated by a PrimeMinister who would want them to feel grateful for being "allowed topray" - that is, for exercising their fundamental constitutionalright.

Never before has an Indian Prime Minister used such aggressive bodylanguage to justify the Gujarat pogrom by citing the "who-cast-the-first-stone" argument. Vajpayee blamed the victims of India's worstcommunal pogrom for their own suffering. No other Prime Minister hasso blatantly undermined public confidence in the rule of law and inthe possibility of minimal justice for all in this society.

We now know, from numerous independent media accounts, and fromseveral highly credible and sensitive reports*, that the Godhrakilling of 59 Hindus was not, causally, "the first stone". The post-February 27 carnage in Gujarat, which has claimed upwards of 850lives, would probably have occurred even if the Godhra incident hadnot. The conditions were ripe for the massacre of Muslims in that"Hindutva laboratory" State. Elaborate preparations had been under wayfor weeks before the massacre, in particular after kar sevaks weredispatched daily to Ayodhya following the stepping up of the templecampaign.

For instance, according to sources in Vadodara, lakhs of anti-Muslimleaflets were illegally printed on slow treadle machines - which musthave taken months. Bombs and trishuls were stockpiled over a period ofweeks. The gap, exceeding 24 hours, between the "trigger event" andthe anti-Muslim violence - in contrast to, say, the immediate reactionin Delhi to Indira Gandhi's assassinatio - only confirms theorganised, unspontaneous, planned nature of the pogrom.

Reconstruction of the Godhra incident, for example in the Citizens'Forum report, suggests that it was a spontaneous, rather than anelaborately planned, over-reaction to the daily harassment of localGhanchi Muslims (oil-pressers by occupation) by communally charged karsevaks returning from Ayodhya. Had there been serious preparation forthe attack on the Sabarmati Express, scheduled to reach Godhra at 2-55a.m., there would have been a large crowd on the railway platform atdawn. There was not.

When the train rolled in five hours late, there were only a handful ofvendors, porters and passengers on the platform. An altercation brokeout between the kar sevaks and Muslim tea vendors. It was only when arumour spread that young Sophia Khan had been dragged into coach S-6that a crowd gathered near Signal Fadia, a basti known for communaltension and criminal activities.

Seven weeks on, the government has failed to provide credible evidencelinking the Godhra episode to a "conspiracy" involving Pakistan'sInter-Services Intelligence or even an organised group in Gujarat orelsewhere. Nor can it explain why towns such as Ratlam, which arephysically far closer to Godhra, and which have a similar compositionof Hindus, Muslims and Adivasis, did not register any "retaliatory"violence, while distant Ahmedabad did.

The reasons are self-evidently Gujarat-specific and political. Theyhave to do with the Narendra Modi government's conscious decision tosupport the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's February 28 bandh call and theauthorities' decision to transport the bodies of the Godhra victims bytrain to Ahmedabad in a ceremonial manner calculated to inflamepassions. It is impossible to separate the post-February 27 violenceeither from the Modi government or Gujarat's communalised context.

The fact that Vajpayee stooped to endorse Modi's "action-reaction"logic to justify violent retribution upon a falsely constructedcollective culprit (Muslims) speaks of an utterly debased mind. Thelogic of such revenge is ultimately the logic of "getting even" withhistory, of Nazism, of barbarism. That is now unfolding before oureyes.

Clearly, the BJP has decided to embrace a virulent form of Hindutva,one that bases itself on a contemporary version of the "Two-Nation"theory. Its disgraceful defence of Modi, its coercive tactics in theNDA, its prolonged refusal to discuss Gujarat under Rule 184 in theLok Sabha, and its wholly unapologetic, brazen, attitude towards thecontinuing climate of fear, intimidation and terror in Gujarat allconfirm this. The very fact that the BJP seriously threatened to holdmid-term Assembly elections in Gujarat in a vitiated atmosphere, andused it as a bargaining chip in negotiating with its allies, testifiesto its cynicism.

The consequences of this stance are already apparent. Thus, BJPspokesman V.K. Malhotra made a revoltingly aggressive statementlikening the Congress to the pre-Partition Muslim League - merelybecause the Congress expressed concern at the butchery of Muslims(although not to the exclusion of concern for Hindus too). And onecannot fail to note Modi's deviousness in transferring honest policeofficers who tried to maintain a semblance of impartiality, or hisgross insensitivity to traumatised Muslim children in thrustingexaminations on them at centres located in areas where Muslims werebutchered.

Gujarat is a fit case for compelling the State government to abide bythe Constitution under Article 355 and for imposing President's Ruleunder Article 356. True, Article 356 has been repeatedly misused todismiss Opposition governments. The demand for its use is being voicedby forces with an extremely dubious record. But there could be nofitter case than Gujarat to which the following description from theConstitution applies: "a situation has arisen in which the governmentof the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions ofthe Constitution."

The constitutional machinery patently broke down in Gujarat onFebruary 28 when scores of citizens were massacred with the fullcomplicity of the state, and when it could not even protect a guardianof the constitutional order, a High Court Judge, who happened to be aMuslim.

It is precisely for such contingencies that President's Rule wasenvisaged. The Gujarat situation cannot get normalised with Modi'sreplacement alone. If hardcore sanghis like Goverdhan Zadaphia orAshok Bhatt were to take over, it could worsen. It is essential, butnot enough, that Modi be sacked. The whole government must bedismissed and Gujarat placed under President's Rule with advisers ofimpeccable integrity and experience, recommended by Parliament as awhole.

It will take months for Gujarat to recuperate and achieve normalcy inany real sense. Such normalcy must include reconciliation betweenestranged neighbours and communities, full physical, psychological andeconomic rehabilitation, and restoration of public confidence in theimpartiality of the government as regards different religious groups.

The danger of half-hearted reconciliation should be obvious. If theone lakh Muslims who are in relief camps - and three or four times asmany, whose livelihoods have been affected - are forced to fend forthemselves without state and community assistance, they will probablyleave Gujarat altogether, or create "safe" ghettos for themselves. Thegreater the ghettoisation, the greater the mutual estrangement ofreligious groups, the lesser their social interaction - and thegreater the scope for conflict.

That is the last thing Gujarat needs. Indeed, it would be a recipe foranother communal pogrom. That is precisely what Hindutva craves most.If the BJP succeeds in its game plan in Gujarat, by whipping up anti-Muslim hysteria, it will replicate the same trick nationally - ifnecessary, by staging another Godhra. If the Nazis could stage theReichstag fire, the BJP can create a Godhra-II, through agentsprovocateurs.

These comparisons are not far-fetched. In foundational premises of itsideology and politics, the BJP shares a great deal with the Italianfascists, the German Nazis and the Taliban. They all reject theemancipatory heritage of the Enlightenment. They privilege tradition(itself ill-defined and distorted) over modernity. They are profoundlyintolerant of difference. They hate democracy and equality. And theydo not believe in just and fair means to achieve just ends. They areprone to despotic methods and barbaric violence.

It will take a lot of effort to fight a force like the BJP-RSS-VHP. Ithas already captured a number of institutions and key positions ingovernment and civil society. It has a dedicated, if fanatical, cadre.Even in the short run, it will not be possible to isolate the Hindutvaforces unless the perpetrators of the Gujarat violence are severelypunished for their grave crimes, along the lines described in theprevious Frontline column (issue of April 26), and unless the BJP ispolitically punished, that is, made to pay a heavy price throughsystematic boycott and isolation.

One wishes this would happen both nationally, in the NationalDemocratic Alliance, and in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is about toform a government with the Bahujan Samaj Party. Regrettably, the BSPleadership seems to be bent on using its Dalit base as virtual common-fodder for Hindutva - for dubious, at best petty, short-term gains.

Fighting Hindutva will be a long haul. But the struggle would not evenhave been joined unless the Opposition mounts relentless pressure onthe NDA, both inside and outside Parliament, through dharnas, rallies,public meetings and mass mobilisation. The People's Front shouldconsider launching a relay dharna in Gujarat's major cities.

The Opposition will do well to join hands with citizens' groups suchas SAHMAT, Aman Ekta Manch, People for Secularism and the Citizens'Initiative (Ahmedabad), which have done a great deal to highlight theGujarat issue and collect donations for the victims' relief. Forinstance, SAHMAT mobilised artists to donate their paintings andraised Rs.5.5 lakhs through their sale.

One thing is clear: it will be a crying shame if the BJP is allowed togo unpunished for its grievous assault on India's secular-democratic-constitutional order, and on the foundations of this plural, diverse,multi-cultural society.

Sitting here in our village home, keeping in touch with the worldthrough the Internet, the newspapers and magazines like yours, we askourselves, how many fires can we fight? And yet it appears that thereis really no option except to keep fighting them and to stand up forwhat we see as the values and beliefs which are intrinsic to thefoundations on which this civilisation (if indeed we can use that termany longer) is based.

We have been reading the comprehensive coverage in your magazine ofthe ghastly and inhuman murder of members of the Staines family inManoharpur and the hard-hitting articles on the politics of hate("Undermining India", February 12). We have also read (on theInternet) the highly slanted report of the murders (from Rashtradeep -Orissa) with its not so oblique insinuations that Staines and hisfamily deserved what they got. What a coincidence that the Santhalsand the Kolhas apparently lost their patience 34 years after GrahamStaines came to work and live in Keonjhar and decided to attack himwhen there is a BJP Government at the Centre, and the Sangh Parivarhas targeted Christians as the new enemies! It is hard to believe thatthe so- called educated people hold these views and, more sinister,use their power and technology to propagate these views in the mostdangerous fashion on the Internet from their comfortable spaces inAmerican universities. It is also interesting that the fact thatmillions of dollars are sent by non-resident Indians to supportfascist activities in the name of Hindutva is not questioned orattacked.

If only we can learn from history, we would see that we are movinginexorably towards fascism - and the silence of the majority can onlyhasten this process.

We too are Hindus, comfortable in the freedom of thought that itprovides, and because of this we can also look at our own traditioncritically and see and understand all the warts and distortions thatit accommodates. But what is propagated in the name of Hinduism is afar cry from the philosphy to which we subscribe. Had we been bornDalits or tribal people, or experienced oppression and discriminationin the name of religion, we too might have opted for Christianity,Islam, Buddhism or any faith which promised us a better deal and thehope of social justice and dignity. Certainly, India's Constitutionguarantees each of us that freedom.

In all the polemics and passion that we see around us, one hearslittle, if any, questioning or critiquing of the built-in inequitiesof Hinduism - only the shrill and fearful howls of the advocates ofHindutva with its distorted and dangerous ideology of linking religionwith nationalism and patriotism. If we believe that it is the spiritof inquiry and search for truth that is the hallmark of both scienceand religion, then let us stop blaming others and begin lookinginwards in the real quest for self-knowledge and encourage our peopleto bring about the changes within, rather than demonising otherfaiths, other denominations. But the politics of hate is so mucheasier to practise than the quest for truth. It has always beenconvenient to mobilise mobs - be it against masjids or mandirs,Dalits, tribal people, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, 'Madrasis','Bangladeshis', 'Pakistanis'. We continue to rely on fanning theflames of hatred for 'the other', to exercise power instead of comingto grips with the real issues of this country - poverty, education,employment and all-pervasive inequality. The issue is not one ofconversions or Christianity, but of how to exploit people who have noidentity or no hope of getting a space under the sun, as the footsoldiers in the service of the armies of destruction and mayhem whocan terrorise, garner votes when needed, and ensure political power atall costs. Ultimately, it is through economic policy decisions and theright kind of education in our classrooms that we can hope to buildthe kind of India that our Constitution has promised. For now, we canonly ask and hope that the right-thinking majority of people in thisland, regardless of their religious affiliations, will speak up beforeit is too late.

Your crusade against the diabolical designs of the Sangh Parivar iscommendable.

The riots in Suratkal, the persecution of Christians in Gujarat, andthe outrage against a missionary in Orissa expose the Parivar's gameplan. When the Babri Masjid was demolished, people in authorityremained passive spectators. They remain so when the minorities areattacked. As long as the minorities have insufficient representationin the police force and secular values are not instilled in theguardians of law, there is no hope.

The biggest irony is that L.K. Advani, one of the accused in the BabriMasjid demolition case, has become the Home Minister of this country.A.B. Vajpayee has proved to be the weakest Prime Minister of India.During his visit to Gujarat, instead of assuaging the hurt feelings ofChristians, he suggested a national debate on conversions. With thishe dropped his mask of moderation.

UbedullaMysore

* * *

It was with a sense of dismay and shame that one watched the HomeMinister making a humiliating trip to Mumbai to pacify the Shiv Sena's"paper tiger". It is a pity that the BJP Government with all the powerat its command could not counter the threat to a visiting cricketteam. The Shiv Sena's attack on the BCCI's office or threats torelease poisonous snakes into the playground only proved itscowardice. If India is to progress, the culture of violence andterrorism should give way to goodwill, harmony and peace.

Dr. A.K. TharienOddanchatram, Tamil Nadu

* * *

January 23, the day Graham Stewart Staines and his two young sons wereburnt alive, was the blackest day in the history of our country. Oneis at a loss to understand why such a harrowing punishment was metedout to the missionary who had served leprosy patients in India since1965.

Why does the Prime Minister hesitate to take stringent action againstBal Thackeray, at whose instigation the cricket pitch at theFerozeshah Kotla stadium was damaged and the BCCI office in Mumbai wasransacked? Is the Sena chief so indispensable?

Mani NatarajanChennai

* * *

It was a unique and informative Cover Story. The need of the hour isunity, integrity and peaceful coexistence of various communities. Weshould uphold our secular values and fulfil the hopes and aspirationsof every citizen.

Shaik Rafeeq AhamedRayachoty, Andhra Pradesh

* * *

The expectation that the experience of heading a government in amodern democracy will soften Hindu fundamentalists, has been belied.With the assumption of power by the Bharatiya Janata Party, theprocess of undermining India started. The aim is to throw the countryback into an era when power, wealth and education were concentrated inthe hands of people who belonged to the upper strata of society. Butwe have come a long way. A government which owes allegiance to theConstitution has to go by the principles enshrined in theConstitution.

A. Jacob SahayamVellore, Tamil Nadu

Arundhati Roy

Indian culture is rich and vibrant and Dalits' contribution to it isno less than that of any other section of our society. Unless thisaspect is researched and brought out, Dalits will not get the kind ofrespect they deserve. In this context, Arundhati Roy's proposal to theDalit Sahitya Akademi on the publication of the Malayalam translationof her novel was really pathbreaking ("In solidarity", February 12).

Dhiraj KumarDelhi

Role of bureaucrats

I read with great interest A.G. Noorani's article on Admiral Bhagwat'scase in your February 12 issue. As usual Noorani's article is veryscholarly and unbiased and would serve as reference material. I would,however, like to point out two references made to me in the article.

First, Noorani should have mentioned that I had also said in my letterto The Times of India that "he will therefore have to look for anotherCabinet Secretary". This would have clarified that my intention wasthat I would rather vacate the post of Cabinet Secretary than sign thenotification.

Secondly, the reference to the 1989 general elections. I do not knowthe basis on which it is mentioned that "and that the announcements inthat behalf should be made by the Commission forthwith and before 2.00p.m. on that date, in any case". This was not my belief at all. In anarticle I wrote on T.N. Seshan, published in November 1994, I havesaid that "I can only write about late Peri Shastri because I knew himwell. It required a lot of courage to stand up to a strong PrimeMinister like Rajiv Gandhi who decided to appoint two ElectionCommissioners obviously to control Peri Shastri. Seshan may say thathe was not consulted here but he went out of his way to force the LawMinistry to issue the notification urgently. When Rajiv Gandhi decidedto announce the general elections, an urgent Cabinet meeting was heldwhen the Cabinet approved the proposal. Seshan as Cabinet Secretaryshould have been sent to Peri Shastri to convey the decision, butRajiv Gandhi said, 'let us not send the bull into the China shop. LetDeshmukh go and settle it in his own quiet way.' I accordingly wentacross after sending a message to Peri Shastri. When I entered hisroom, I found him agitated, saying that he would not be dictated to bythe Government in fixing the dates for the elections. There was asharp exchange between us and tempers rose. I then decided to keepquiet and let Peri Shastri blow off steam. When he quietened down Iconvinced him that the Government was right in suggesting the dates asit had to make various administrative arrangements. Ultimately, thenotification was issued accordingly."

This should make it clear that I was not the "civil servant who wassent as an errand boy". My brief was to persuade Peri Shastri to agreeto the Government's suggestion. It should also be added that at thattime I was not a serving civil servant but was re-employed to hold thepost in the Prime Minister's Office.

B.G. DeshmukhMumbai

A.G. Noorani writes:

I was not called upon to mention, as B.G. Deshmukh insists, that hehad asked the President "to look for another Cabinet Secretary". Hisintimation to President Zail Singh that he would not notify any orderdismissing Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 as Prime Minister, was wrong enough.It was not his place to do so; least of all ask the President "to lookfor" a substitute especially since the office is in the bounty of thePrime Minister.

Deshmukh confirms my comment. It was based on Justice Sawant'sreference to his mission as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.It is pointless to shift the blame to T.N. Seshan, then CabinetSecretary, when he himself carried out an order he knew to be illegaland politically immoral. On his own showing, there was "a sharpexchange" between him and the CEC Peri Shastri and "tempers rose".

This would not have happened unless a zealous Deshmukh had tried toforce the upright Peri Shastri to accept the election datesperemptorily urged by Rajiv Gandhi. He relented because the twoElection Commissioners had been appointed to overrule him. "The bullin the China shop" could hardly have performed worse than Deshmukhhimself did at the meeting. Significantly, Deshmukh has not a word ofcriticism of the man who sent him, Rajiv Gandhi. His Cabinet'sdecision was palpably illegal and politically immoral.

Judging by his own account, Deshmukh was far worse than the "civilservant who was sent as an errand boy". Both Seshan and Deshmukhcarried out an illegal order with competitive enthusiasm. Servitorswhile in service, lecturers on retirement. The Constitution makes theCEC an umpire between the ruling party and the others. It is hisprerogative to fix the dates. Two of the foremost civil servants ofthe day tried to suborn him.

Ban all Senas

The twin massacres by the Ranvir Sena in Jehanabad district are atestament to V.D. Savarkar's call to "'militarise Hinduism". As theblood of 12 Dalits (from Khoja Narayanpur, February 10) and of 23Dalits (Shankarbigha, January 25) flows in central Bihar, the Sangh(more like, Jang) Parivar offers its regret from one side of itsmouth, while it is gleeful on the other.

The Progressive Forum of India (PFI) condemns the Ranvir Sena for itsviolence as well as the Jang Parivar (notably the BJP) and theerstwhile Bihar Government for their studied negligence.

The Ranvir Sena, like the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra three decadesearlier, was set up in 1994 to counter the growth of Leftorganisations in central Bihar. From the first, the organisation wasprone to violence. Before its formation, landlords (many of whom areBhumihars) formed private militias that massacred, for instance, sevenDalits in Sawanbigha village in Jehanabad in 1991. In December 1997,the Ranvir Sena killed over 60 people in Lakshmanpur-Bathe, again inJehanabad. Further, on January 9, 1999, a Ranvir Sena leader announcedthat his fascist band planned to conduct a massacre larger than thatin Lakshmanpur in the near future. Neither the State Government northe Jang Parivar did anything against him. Progressive forces in Biharand elsewhere underscored the danger, but nothing was done. In fact,The Times of India reported that Vinod Sharma (Ranvir Sena) travelledwith a police officer to Arwal at the time of the massacre. The PFIcondemns this nexus between the landlord militia, the Jang Parivar andthe institutions of the state.

The Ranvir Sena has been set up to undermine popular movements. Itresorts to violence and to authoritarian acts against the oppressed.The PFI offers its support to those who feel the strong arm of suchorganisations and we call upon all progressive people to condemn andchallenge such fascist bands.

The Rae Bareli court judgment in the Ayodhya case discharging DeputyPrime Minister L.K. Advani is against the weight of the entireevidence and violates the law as declared by the Supreme Court.

VINO JOHN

Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani.

THE Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister, Lal KrishnaAdvani's discharge in the Ayodhya case on September 19, 2003, was no"honourable acquittal" after a full trial on the merits. It was agross miscarriage of justice, which precludes a proper trial. Aperusal of the English translation of the 130-page judgment in Hindiby Vinod Kumar Singh, Special Judicial Magistrate, Rae Bareli, revealsthat the grounds for his discharge could well apply also to otheraccused such as Union Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and Madhya PradeshChief Minister Uma Bharati. Conversely, the grounds on which chargeswill be framed against them apply also to Advani. The judgment isutterly unconvincing in the distinction it draws between him and theother accused, including Ashok Singhal, V.H. Dalmiya, Giriraj Kishore,Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Ritambara.

The judgment is against the weight of the entire evidence and violatesthe law as declared by the Supreme Court. The reasoning is laboured toa degree. It must be emphasised that what the Magistrate pronouncedwas an order of discharge at the stage of framing the charge not anacquittal on merits after a trial. A discharge does not bar anotherprosecution, an acquittal does.

In the face of such a judgment the behaviour of the Central Bureau ofInvestigation, the prosecuting agency, was true to form. It did notmove the High Court for quashing the order. The prescribed period oflimitation is three months. The CBI bestirred itself ostentatiouslythereafter in view of public censure. Rajnish Sharma reported in TheHindustan Times (December 31, 2003) that "CBI sources claim that theagency's top-brass still differ on whether to move the High Court ornot. Initially, it was decided that the CBI should not go in for anappeal against Advani. However, faced with mounting criticism forhaving failed to appeal against the lower court order, the opinionseems to have changed.

RAMESH SHARMA

Murli Manohar Joshi.

"While announcing its decision, even the Rae Bareli court had stronglycriticised the agency's role as it felt the CBI had deliberatelyweakened the case against Advani. Agency sources now claim that oncethe courts reopen, they will file a petition explaining the reasonsfor the delay."

IT is necessary to recall the background in order to appreciate thejudgment. The CBI had filed a charge-sheet in court against Advani andother accused, on October 5, 1993, charging them with conspiring todemolish the mosque. Two courts found that a prima facie case on thischarge did exist - Special Judicial Magistrate Mahipal Sirohi onAugust 27, 1994, while committing the accused to the Sessions Court,and the Additional Sessions Judge, Lucknow, Jugdish Prasad Srivastava,on September 9, 1997, while framing the charges.

The Sessions Judge concluded that "in the present case a criminalconspiracy to demolish the disputed structure of Ramjanmabhoomi/BabriMasjid was hatched by the accused persons in the beginning of 1990 andwas completed on 6.12.1992". Advani and others hatched criminalconspiracies "to demolish the disputed premises on different times atdifferent places". A prima facie case was found to charge BalThackeray, Advani and others, including Murli Manohar Joshi and UmaBharati, under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Advani and his colleagues, Joshi and Uma Bharati, faced two charges intwo courts - delivering inflammatory speeches on December 6, 1992,prior to the demolition, and hatching a conspiracy to demolish themosque from 1990. Immediately after the mosque was demolished, twofirst information reports were filed in the same police station. Onewas filed at 5-15 p.m. against "lakhs of unknown kar sevaks" foroffences committed at 12-15 p.m.; mainly the demolition. Spread ofcommunal hate was one of them. Very properly, conspiracy was notalleged since the facts were not known then and no particular personwas cited either. This was Crime No. 197 (demolition).

S. SUBRAMANIUM

Uma Bharati.

The next FIR, filed only 10 minutes later, was Crime No. 198(speeches) against eight named persons - Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharati,Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, V.H. Dalmiya, Vinay Katiyar andRitambara. It alleged that they had delivered communally inflammatoryspeeches at 10 a.m. prior to the demolition (Section 153A IPC). Thischarge was common to both FIRs. FIR 198 (speeches) said also that"during the speeches of these leaders, repeated indications (sic:"incitement") were given to demolish the mosque. As a result, lakhs ofkar sevaks attacked and pulled down the disputed structure". Theleaders were named because their identities were known. Conspiracy wasproperly not alleged in either FIR because it requires a long probe.There were 47 other FIRs for offences against the media.

After the imposition of President's rule in Uttar Pradesh, thedemolition case (197) was assigned to the CBI while the State policedealt with the speeches case (198). Both were parts of the sametransaction and were linked inseparably. Eventually, the CBI wasassigned the speeches case as well. It, therefore, submitted acomposite, damning charge-sheet in court on October 5, 1993. But therewas a technical flaw in the assignment of the cases to courts, whichwas pointed out by Justice Jagdish Bhalla of the Allahabad High Courton February 12, 2001. He struck down as invalid the reference of Case198 (speeches) to the Lucknow court from the Rae Bareli court. Hisjudgment of February 12, 2001, upheld everything else, including thejoint charge-sheet. He thrice said that the defect was "curable" byanother notification after consulting the High Court. Obviously,justice required that the two cases, 197 (demolition) and 198(speeches), be tried together in one court.

Neither the Rajnath Singh government nor the succeeding Mayawatiregime had any intention of "curing the defect". Nor has Mulayam SinghYadav's government now. The High Court issued a notification onSeptember 28, 2002, assigning Case No.198 (speeches) to the Rae Barelicourt. On November 29, the Supreme Court upheld it, holding that noone had a right to insist on a particular venue. It overlooked thebackground, the mala fides and the obvious miscarriage of justice. Areview petition has been filed against this order. (vide the writer'sarticle, `Reprimand for delay', Frontline, March 30, 2001).

To be precise, Justice Bhalla upheld: 1) the Sessions Judge's order ofSeptember 9, 1997, framing the charges in Case No. 197 (demolition);2) the validity of Vijai Verma's appointment as Special Judge and hiscognisance of all cases (save No.198); 3) the notification of theSpecial Court in Lucknow; 4) the CBI's investigation; and 5) theconsolidated charge-sheet of October 5, 1993. Even if the oneconcerning the speeches of December 6, 1992, is dropped, theconspiracy case survives.

C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

Ashok Singhal.

But let alone a notification to cure the defect and ensure trial ofboth the connected cases in one court, in the interests of sheerjustice, the course which the two cases took subsequently in differentcourts was, to say the least, surprising. The High Court's ruling wasset at naught by the Sessions Judge at Lucknow, Srikant Shukla, on May4, 2001, which he had no right to do. Justice Bhalla had merely struckdown the transfer of the speeches case (198) from Rae Bareli toLucknow. Shukla went beyond it and dropped even the conspiracy chargein Case No.197(demolition) before him. The reasoning was tortuous. Heconfined FIR 197 (demolition) to kar sevaks alone; ignored theconspiracy charges and exonerated the leaders. They were heldaccountable only in FIR 198 (speeches) - which he could not try. Hewrote: "Two distinct cases were registered which are different. In thefirst FIR were kar sevaks who pulled down the structure... and in theother FIR are conspirators/abettors who instigated the kar sevaks.This way, the State has considered both the cases different andseparate and has treated them so."

This was in flat contradiction to Justice Bhalla's judgment. WhatShukla did was to transpose the conspiracy charge, which properlybelonged to the demolition case (197) which he was trying, to thespeeches case (198), which he could not try. Having done so, hedropped proceedings on the conspiracy charge against the eight accusedleaders who also figured in the speeches case and 13 others besideswho did not. Thrown back at the Rae Bareli court like a shuttle cock,the conspiracy charge was buried there by the CBI two years later inits charge-sheet of May 30, 2003. On September 1, the apex courtissued notices to Advani and other accused on a petition challengingthis omission. The CBI had curiously moved the High Court on June 19,2001, against Shukla's order. On August 6, 2003, Justice N.K. Mehrotraordered stay of proceedings in the Lucknow court till September 24.

But the conspiracy charge cannot vanish so easily. It covers eventssince 1990. Abetment by incitement occurred on December 6, 1992.Shukla's reference to "conspirators/abettors who instigated" truncatesthe conspiracy charge - and drops it. The CBI's joint charge-sheet ofOctober 5, 1993, explicitly said: "Investigations revealed that on5.12.1992, a secret meeting was held at the residence of Shri VinayKatiyar which was attended by S/Shri L.K. Advani, Pawan Pandey, etc.Wherein a final decision to demolish the disputed structure wastaken." Sessions Judge J.P. Srivastava's order of September 9, 1997also mentioned this very date. He traced the beginning of theconspiracy to 1990, how it picked up speed in 1991 and the stagesleading to its culmination with the demolition of the mosque. In eachstage Advani's role was narrated in detail. "Conspiracy is plannedsecretly," he remarked. It cannot be limited to the public speeches onDecember 6, as Shukla did. The High Court upheld the validity of theconspiracy charge.

TWO recent disclosures support the charge. It has been revealed thaton October 1, 1993, the Home Ministry itself sanctioned the CBI'scharge. It mentioned an interesting detail: "In pursuance of thecriminal conspiracy", Pramod Mahajan and Ashok Singhal met BalThackeray on November 21, 1992, and secured the Sena's participationin the "kar seva". On June 7, 2003, five of the accused allegedinstigation by the leaders. R.N. Das, one of the priests at the sitewhere the idols were placed inside the mosque before its demolition,told the media: "I was a witness in a meeting held by Advani andothers... on December 5 night" - and spilled the beans. Justice Bhallaremarked: "According to the prosecution, the accused persons areeither rich, influential or politically strong." He recalled theSupreme Court's remarks in the case of the former Chief Minister ofKarnataka, S. Bangarappa: "The slow motion becomes much slower motionwhen politically powerful or rich and influential persons figures asaccused."

The demolition case (197) was thus put out of the way. All that theleaders faced was the speeches case (198) alone. On May 30, 2003, theCBI filed a supplementary charge-sheet in the Rae Bareli court tryingthe speeches case. On July 5, the CBI's advocate, S.S. Gandhi, openedthe case and cited statements by witnesses testifying to inflammatoryspeeches and to instigation of the kar sevaks to demolish the mosque.He said he would produce audio and videocassettes as evidence. On July30, astonishingly, the CBI said that "the video cassettes did not showthem giving any speech". Special Judicial Magistrate Vinod Kumar Singhdelivered judgment on September 19, 2003, in this case.

He begins by reproducing the FIR in case No. 198 which is revealing:"I, Sub Inspector Ganga Prasad Tewari, in-charge of the police postRamjanmabhoomi, police station Ramjanmabhoomi, Faizabad, was engagedtoday, on 06.12.92, in maintenance of peace and order during the karseva organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Checking duty near thedisputed Ram Chabutara and Sheshavatar Mandir, I reached the meetingplace in Ram Katha Kunj at about 10 a.m. where the Vishwa HinduParishad General Secretary Shri Ashok Singhal, Joint Secretary ShriGiriraj Kishore, Shri Lal Krishna Advani, Shri Murli Manohar Joshi,Shri Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and BJP M.P. from Faizabad and Bajrang Dalconvenor Shri Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharati, Sadhvi Ritambara, etc. allthe speakers were seated on the dais. The above mentioned speakerswere inciting the kar sevaks by their incendiary speeches; theirslogan was `Ek dhakkar aur do, Babri Masjid tod do,' and destroy thiskhandahar (rubble) that is symbolic of the Mughal age slavery. Incitedby their incendiary speeches, the kar sevaks were now and then raisingslogans - "Jab katue kaate jaayenge, tab Ram Ram chillayenge; andRamlala, hum aayenge, Mandir yahin banayenge." The intention todestroy the mosque was again and again indicated (in) these leaders'speeches. As a consequence, lakhs of kar sevaks broke through thebarricades and destroyed the disputed structure, which has hurt thenational unity seriously. The said event was seen, apart from thepolice and administration officials and employees, by the audience andjournalists. Therefore, the report must be entertained and necessaryaction taken."

The secret meeting of December 5 was followed by the speeches onDecember 6 which incited the demolition. The rest followed as planned.The judgment recites statements by eyewitnesses on the leaders'speeches, before the Babri mosque was demolished, as recorded by thepolice under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, four videocassettes, three audio cassettes, photographs and news reports. It iswell settled that at the stage of framing the charges all that thecourt has to consider is whether a prima facie case is made out. It isnot to enter into a trial on the merits. Section 227 of CrPC says thatif the Judge considers "that there is not sufficient ground forproceeding against the accused, he shall discharge the accused", asdistinct from an acquittal which can follow only after a trial on themerits of the charges.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that "even a very strong suspicionfounded upon material before the Magistrate, which leads him to form apresumptive opinion as to the existence of the factual ingredientsconstituting the offence alleged, may justify the framing of charge".Nor is the court bound to consider evidence produced by the accused.It has to consider whether the prosecution case, if unrebutted,establishes a case in law. That is what a prima facie case means inlaw.

KAMAL NARANG

Sadhvi Ritambara.

The sole issue before the Magistrate, therefore, was whether thepolice statements produced before him by the prosecution establishedsuch a case. Thirty-odd such statements are reproduced in thejudgment; some contradict others. The contradiction is to be resolvedonly in the trial proper; not while framing the charges unless, ofcourse, the ones against the accused are manifestly untrue or absurd.In this case, they were not.

Consider the very first two statements which the judgment quotes:"Shri Ram Kripal Das, disciple of Mahant late Bharat Das, PSRamjanmabhoomi, Faizabad, has made, in the main, the followingstatement under Section 161 CrPC: "On 6.12.1992 I remained near mytemple the whole day. Through my door and the windows inside, soundscoming from the Ram Katha Kunj and words (like) Sheshavatar Mandir,vivadit dhancha (disputed structure) vivadit chabutara (disputedplatform) can be heard. That day, a crowd of kar sevaks had started togather since morning. The kar sevaks were raising slogans and loudlysaying: today we would not stop even if some leader tries to stop us.We will demolish it today... On the Ram Katha Kunj side, leaders weremaking speeches one by one that a temple has to be built. There was alot of noise. Lal Krishna Advani, Ashok Singhal, Vinay Katiyar, MurliManohar Joshi, etc. spoke. All the leaders were making enthusiasticspeeches. I had seen with my own eyes the above leaders going towardsthe temple. When there was a hullabaloo and they were demolishing thedisputed structure, none of the leaders was preventing them. If theseleaders had told the kar sevaks not to break any dome, they would haveobeyed it, because they had called the kar sevaks to come here. VinayKatiyar was much active from the very beginning and was prepared to doeverything right or wrong for temple construction" (emphasis added,throughout).

Dhanpat Ram Yadav made the following statement under Section 161 CrPC:"On 6.12.92, I was on the roof of the Sita Rasoi (Sita's kitchen) fromearly morning. That day I saw Vinay Katiyar, Lal Krishna Advani, UmaBharati, etc. coming in a crowd of kar sevaks. They were makingspeeches that were provoking the kar sevaks, saying Mandir bana karjaayenge, Hindu Rashtra banayenge (we will leave after building atemple and we will build a Hindu Rashtra). When the kar sevaks hadclimbed the domes in large numbers and were demolishing them, none ofthe leaders prevented anyone or told to stop. All stood silent... "Another 10 statements were in the same vein followed by that ofChandra Kishore Mishra who said "inflamed by the very speeches ofthese leaders, the kar sevaks brought down the structure". Advani wasspecifically mentioned by him as one of them.

The Additional Superintendent of Police, Faizabad, Anju Gupta wasdetailed to provide security to Advani. She saw people running towardsthe mosque with tools in their hands. If she could see that so, onewould think, could "the leaders". She said "Then Shri Lal KrishnaAdvani asked me what was happening inside the temple. I asked thecontrol room and came to know that kar sevaks had entered it and werebusy demolishing the structure; then I told him the same. I also toldhim that many people had got injured and were being brought near theRam Katha Kunj for treatment. Then Advani told me: I want to go andtell them to come down. I conferred with S.P. Intelligence andCommandant of the 15th Battalion who were with Shri Murli ManoharJoshi. He said it was not proper to go into the crowd as these peoplewere inflamed. Shri Advani talked to his comrades and told me that hewon't go but somebody would have to be taken there. Then I sent UmaBharati and two others there. The crowd surrounded my jeep near DorahiKuwan and did not allow us to go ahead. Then Uma Bharati and weproceeded on foot. I saw after sometime that people had come down fromthe domes. They were talking of doing the kar seva from below, notfrom above. Advani told me he wanted to talk to the DM. He also toldabout talking to the Chief Minister, but I pleaded helplessness. Oneperson, who had come with Uma Bharati, was making fun of the SupremeCourt. After some time, Advani and Joshi went to the office of RamKatha Kunj, and told me they were talking to the Chief Minister. I sawfire and smoke rising at all sides in Ayodhya. Advani told me... [page92 bottom: seems some lines are missing here]... began to distributesweets... . Advani came back at about six and a half. With him therewere Murli Manohar Joshi, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Ashok Singhal and VinayKatiyar etc. About the speeches from the stage, I have already told. Iremember the atmosphere became surcharged with Advani's arrival.People were raising slogans, but I could not hear any other sloganbecause of being busy with other works. Joshi had spoken earlier, hehad said whatever Narasimha Rao could say, the temple would beconstructed here. I did not see these leaders making any attempt toprevent the kar sevaks from demolishing the disputed structure. Advaniwas sad that people were falling from the domes and dying... on thefall of the first, second and third domes, Uma Bharati and Ritambarahad embraced each other; sweets were also distributed. The two hadalso embraced the males. Embracing Advani, Joshi and S.C. Dixit, UmaBharati and Ritambara were expressing their happiness. On the fall ofthe domes, all the said eight accused and Acharya Dharmendra etc werecongratulating one another. All were expressing happiness."

Vinay Katiyar.

Renu Mittal confirmed reports in The Hindu and The Indian Express(December 7, 1992): "L.K. Advani began to address the kar sevaks overthe mike from the protection of the Ram Katha Kunj platform. In therush of shouts and the milling confusion he could be overheard tellingthe kar sevaks to block all entry points to Ayodhya to stop anyoneentering the town. He also announced that the kar seva that beguntoday would only end once the mandir nirman was completed... . At 3-30p.m. the left dome of the Babri Masjid was demolished. Many of the karsevaks were injured and some of them were buried under the falling ofthe debris of the dome."

A few statements, about 5 or 6, averred that Advani urged the karsevaks to climb down; evidently for their own protection. For, somewere buried in the debris.

Vishnu Hari Dalmiya.

The Magistrate's observations on the course the case took aresignificant. "This is an indisputable fact that the High Court hadbefore itself a combined charge-sheet in cases 197/92 (demolition) and198/92 (speeches) and, compared to this court, the High Court waspresented with much more evidence/statements of witnesses. Apart fromit, the High Court had before it the charge under Section 120 IPC(conspiracy), which was not included in the charge-sheet filed in thiscourt. After the said judgment, an order was passed by the SpecialJudge (Ayodhya Prakaran), Lucknow, in which 21 accused were recognisedas accused in case 198/92 (speeches) and proceedings against them wereordered to be stopped. These included the eight accused named in thecharge-sheet filed in this court. Thereafter, the CBI requested theState government to rectify the said shortcoming in the notificationdated 8/10/93, but the said shortcoming was not rectified by the Stategovernment. After that, special writ petitions were filed by Bhure Laland three others against the said judgment of the High Court, on whichthe Supreme Court issued its judgment/order on 29/11/2002. Under thesaid order of the Supreme Court, a petition has been filed by the CBIin this court constituted under the former notification, on which theCBI was directed to get the papers in case 198/92 (speeches) andpresent in this court. The record of case 198/92 (speeches) wasreceived and then the CBI filed a supplementary charge-sheet. Atpresent the case is being heard in this court under the Supreme Courtorder dated 29/11/2002. Thus this court has considered the materialpresented to it about this charge. Statements of some more witnesseswere considered after the CBI filed a charge-sheet and some evidencealong with it and, later, after its advance investigation."

THUS the CBI itself dropped the conspiracy charge (Section 120 IPC).The Magistrate lists some 19 considerations for framing the charges.Two of them read thus: (2) "If the case falls in the area of doubt, itcannot take the place of proof at the conclusion of the hearing. Butif there is serious doubt in the initial stage and it leads the courtto think that there is ground to believe that the accused hascommitted the offence, then the court is not allowed to say thatenough ground is not there for proceeding against the accused... (8)If material has been presented before the court and that createsserious doubt against the accused and has not been adequatelyexplained, it is justified for the court to frame charges and starthearing." He violated both.

He recorded: "In the videocassettes presented to the court, no leaderis seen making a speech during the demolition of the said structure on6/12/92. From a perusal of all the statements under Section 161 CrPCand the available material, it appears prima facie that there were twogroups during the event - one was demolishing the disputed structurewhile the other was, along with the security forces, attempting toprevent the demolition of the disputed structure. The prosecutionwitness Shri Ram Kripal Das has said in his statement, among otherthings, that the kar sevaks were greatly excited and loudly tellingthat (they) would not stop even if some leader tried to stop them.

AJIT KUMAR/AP

Acharya Giriraj Kishore.

"In her statement, Anju Gupta has specifically said that on 6/12/92she was deployed for Lal Krishna Advani's security. She has also saidthat the S.P. Intelligence and the Commandant of the 15th Battalionwere with Murli Manohar Joshi Ms. Anju Gupta is an IPS officer and, asis evident from her statement, she was deployed for Lal KrishnaAdvani's security. Therefore, Anju Gutpa's statement is extremelyimportant regarding L.K. Advani. She has said the following in herstatement: "I had seen some boys advancing towards the disputedstructure from the Kuber Tola side, with tools in their hands. ThenShri Lal Krishna Advani asked me what was happening inside thetemple... ."

"From this statement, the prima facie conclusion emerges that at thattime L.K. Advani did not know that demolition of the disputedstructure had started. Besides, Advani's contention in Anju Gupta'sstatement that `I want to go and tell them to come down' generatesanother view contrary to the prima facie charge against him. In herstatement, Anju Gupta has not indicated any such contention by anyother leader. She has also said Advani had asked her what washappening at other places and she had said she did not know. The factof Advani inquiring about what was happening at other places primafacie reveals his ignorance." How does his ignorance of what washappening at "other places" in the city prove his ignorance of whatwas happening before his and everyone else's eyes - demolition of themosque. His reasoning is palpably wrong. First, there were no "twogroups" of leaders, implying that Advani belonged to one that tried topacify the mob while the rest instigated it. Who were Advani's alliesin the pacificatory effort or was he alone in this? There were in facttwo sets of statements before the court. It is not the number but thequality that matters. Even so, the overwhelming majority explicitlyimplicated Advani along with the rest as an instigator. The minorityis not only small but pathetically laboured in its apologia.

Secondly, from a mere query by Advani to Anju Gupta, Vinod Kumar Singhjumps to the astonishing conclusion that "L.K. Advani did not knowthat demolition of the disputed mosque had started." The demolitionwas surely there for all to see. The query was "what was happeninginside the temple" (sic.). His concern was not to stop the demolition,else he would not have urged barricading of the roads to preventCentral forces from arriving. The reason for his disquiet wasdifferent as she clearly mentioned: "Advani was sad that people werefalling from the domes and dying."

DOUGLAS E CURRAN/AFP

Kar sevaks stop the Babri Masjid five hours before the structure wasdemolished on December 6, 1992.

Thirdly, the Magistrate holds that "Anju Gupta has not indicated anysuch contention (sic.) by any other leader." On the strength of thissolitary statement, Advani alone is exonerated. Her statement itselfis palpably misconstrued. Lastly, the Magistrate embarked on theevaluation of the evidence. He singles out her statement, misconstruesit, and ignores the enormous bulk, which clubbed Advani with the rest.This is in clear breach of the law as laid down by the Supreme Court.

The Magistrate holds: "On the basis of the material presented to thecourt, and having considered the extensive possibilities and the totalimpact of the evidence in the light of both sides' arguments, I am ofthe opinion that two views appear probable only about the prima faciecharge brought against the accused Lal Krishna Advani. One view isthat, prima facie, the crime was caused by Lal Krishna Advani to becommitted and the other view is that, prima facie, the crime was notcaused to be committed by him. After having considered the availablematerial and the two sides' arguments, in my opinion, suspicion but noserious suspicion, seems to exist about the accused Lal Krishna Advanihaving caused the crime to be committed under Sections 147/149/153A/153B/505 IPC. On the contrary, having considered the availablematerial on record in the light of the two sides' arguments, I am ofthe opinion that serious suspicion exists about the crime having beencaused under Section 147/149/153A/153B/505 IPC by the other accusedDr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, AcharyaGiriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar and SadhviRitambara, which the said accused have been unable to explain... . Asper the above discussion, as two views are possible regarding theaccused Lal Krishna Advani's offence and there exists only suspicion(keval sandeh) that he caused the said crime to be committed,therefore under the said ruling the accused Lal Krishna Advanideserves to be acquitted from the charge in the case in question.

"As per the above discussion, serious suspicion (ghor sandeh) existsthat the crime was caused to be committed by the accused Dr. MurliManohar Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Acharya GirirajKishore, Sadhvi Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Ritambara, whichthe said accused have been unable to explain, therefore in the lightof the said ruling, a prima facie case is made against the accused Dr.Murli Manohar Joshi, and the rest."

The Magistrate, in effect, tried Advani on the merits instead offraming charges against him since a prima facie case was disclosedwarranting a full trial. Only at the end is the accused entitled tobenefit of the doubt. The reasoning is tortuous in the extreme. Theconclusion is manifestly demonstrably wrong. Magistrate Vinod KumarSingh's judgment prevents Advani's trial on grounds that aremanifestly wrong. Criminal proceedings in the Ayodhya case have takena bizarre course. In the Sessions Court at Lucknow, the Judge SrikantShukla drops the conspiracy charge on May 4, 2001, in breach of theHigh Court's ruling on February 12, 2001. In the Rae Bareli court theCBI drops that charge in its "supplementary" charge-sheet on May 30,2003. What are we coming to? The civil proceedings are as disquieting;especially after the order for excavation by the Special Bench of theHigh Court last March. As for the CBI's role the less said thebetter.

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2102/stories/20040130002204700.htm

Resolved QuestionHindu Hate Crimes?

Why doesn't anyone ever point out the Hindu hate crimes againstMuslims in India and Pakistan while they are talking about ReligiousExtremism?3 years ago

Additional DetailsThomas, please see answer below, thanks3 years ago

by Thomas B Member since:June 12, 2007Total points:5188 (Level 5)

Best Answer - Chosen by VotersDear Please list some.

Most Hindu attacks in India are retaliation to what the stupid Muslimsstart.

Please show us a proof of Muslim oppression with facts to support yourclaim.

Whatever Kalebow has stated comes from an extremist platform christiannews network. I am a Christian and still don't buy this BS spread bythe Evangelical Christian Media. Just the same I don't buy thatMuslims in Pakistan want peace.

All what Kalebow has said has supposedly happened in Burma and SriLanka, he does not answer your question about India, please provideproof of Hindu crimes against Muslims in Pakistan? are you joking.

When India and Pakistan were separated in 1947 Hindu population inPakistan was more than 14% today entire Pakistan is has less than 2%minorities Pakistan is 98% Muslim State.

Where as India at Sepration had a 7% Muslim population which today ismore than 12% and 12% Muslims in India equal to the entire populationof Pakistan.

Because for most people in the west they never hear about them andlets face it Hindus are not mass killing Christians and Jews likeMuslims have been trying to do - it just does get the interest of mostin the west. Most actions taken by Hindus - although are bad - areusually retalitory in nature which makes thems to a certain extentseem justified to some.

The Buddhist state of Burma openly plans to Abolish Christianity andnobody calls them terrorists ?

The Burma Government May Move to Abolish Christianity With BuddhistSupport ?

Government officials have shut down churches in this capital city andhave disallowed the construction of new church buildings. The numberof bibles allowed for import is limited and in-country printing ofbibles and Christian literature is restricted.

"Some Buddhist monks came and started shouting, 'don't worship Godhere – he has nothing to do with us,'” David said. “They said we weretrying to establish Christianity in the village and they did not wantit. The monks and others threw stones at us. They hit us like a hardrain. Some of us were hit in the cheek, the neck and the forehead."

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/012607Bur…

Report: Burma Plans to Wipe Out Christianity

A leaked secret document claims to reveal plans by the Burmesemilitary regime to wipe out Christianity in the southeast Asiancountry.

Inside the memo were detailed instructions on how to force Christiansout of the country, according to Telegraph.

Instructions included imprisoning any person caught evangelizing,capitalizing on the fact that Christianity is a non-violent religion.

“The Christian religion is very gentle,” read the letter, according toTelegraph, “Identify and utilize its weakness.”

Burma, also known as Myanmar, has a Christian population of about fourpercent, according to the CIA World Factbook. Persecution againstChristians have come in the form of church burnings, forced conversionto the state religion of Buddhism, and banning children of Christiansfrom school.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/200…

Christian children forced to become Buddhist monks.

CHILDREN from Christian families in Burma, between the ages of fiveand ten, have been lured from their homes and placed in Buddhistmonasteries. Once taken in, their heads have been shaved and they havebeen trained as novice monks, never to see their parents again.

http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-…

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_s…

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/ch…

Buddhist Extremists Attack Christian-Run Children’s Home in Sri Lanka

A 200-man mob, accompanied by extremist Buddhist monks, has attacked achildren’s home, which was being run by the Dutch Reformed Church incentral Sri Lanka at the beginning of August.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights organisationwhich specialises in religious freedom, has reported that the mobfiercely attacked the home, following which, they climbed to the roofand planted a Buddhist flag on the roof.

Tina Lambert, Advocacy Director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide(CSW), said: "We are extremely concerned about the continuing violenceagainst Christians in Sri Lanka. This latest incident, in which childcare workers have been threatened, is unacceptable and we urge the SriLankan authorities to bring the perpetrators of such violence tojustice."

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/bu…

Hindu and Buddhists united to opose Christian evangelism

Hindu and Buddhist priests from across Asia are uniting to opposeChristian proselytism. The 1,000 delegates to a three-day conferencein Lumbini, Nepal, discussed Pope John Paul II's recent call toevangelize Asia. Evangelism constitutes "a war against Hindus andBuddhists" and is a "spiritual crime," they said.

Cambodia's government issued a directive preventing Christians frompromoting their religion in public places, or using money or othermeans to persuade people to convert, officials said Tuesday.

Cambodian Buddhists generally tolerate other religions, but last yearabout 300 Buddhist villagers DESTROYED a partially built Christianchurch near Phnom Penh.

Also last year, a group of Christian worshippers was caughtdistributing sweets to young people in the countryside while trying toconvert them, Sun Kim Hun said. Such activities are illegal.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wire…

INDIA (Newsroom) – Six Christian missionaries participating in agospel campaign called "Love Ahmedabad" were beaten so savagely in thestate of Gujarat last week that one of the men may lose his arms andlegs.

Members of the Hyderabad-based Operation Mobilization (OM) weredistributing Bibles and religious tracts in Ahmedabad, about fivemiles from Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat, the afternoon of May 5when they were attacked by members of the Hindu extremist groupsBajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Operation Mobilizationships tons of Christian literature around the country. The assailantsalso burned copies of the Bible and tracts.

http://www.worthynews.com/news-features/…

Christian missionaries beaten in public for 'converting' Hindus

Television channels showed Hindu activists kicking and punching thetwo young priests while dragging them through Maharashtra's Kolhapurtown.

News footage showed an activist knee one priest in the groin, makinghim double up in pain. Another kicked the missionary in the head. Thecrowd accused the priests of forcibly converting poor Hindus, andhanded them over to police.

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/…

The violence of Buddhist extremists it’s being compared to the killingfields of Cambodia. In Sri Lanka religion has become mixed withpolitics and nationalism - creating a toxic brew of hatred and fear.They are…… forcibly trying to convert people to Buddhism and forcingpeople to kneel down to declare Buddha is our god! Read about it

great answer Thomas...Unfortunately these bigots that make these false calims only seethough their lens and are not mature enough to realise the facts..3 years ago

Any my Hindu brother will accept nithyananda swamiji is their guru,after his crime...? if s why..?.?http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=As4N.azjWH.QVon7PCP20wjd7BR.;_ylv=3?qid=20100308072451AAYK8duAny one accept nithyananda swamiji is their guru, after his crime...?http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AotF_sqWOe_Lk7tfFDNher7d7BR.;_ylv=3?qid=20100308072237AAd8GeG

Christians, can you give several examples of scriptures (to add tothis) that show us how precious...?http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnF9GzIAaTjwzchT.UEaegHd7BR.;_ylv=3?qid=20100308072220AAxqgd2

Why do religious people think that suicide is a sin?http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApdmH190JzBD8onJU9H2_W3d7BR.;_ylv=3?qid=20100308072151AAI7dpX

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070724133507AAtHOJI

THE OTHER HALFFrom the land of hateKALPANA SHARMA

`We have found a lot of happiness here,' said one girl. Happiness?After spending just three days in an overcrowded, hot, dirty city?....The story of 19 young Muslim women from Gujarat.

ON the surface they looked like any group of college girls. A littleconservative, perhaps, compared to their counterparts in Mumbai. Butthese were not just college girls. You could tell if you looked moreclosely, if you looked into their eyes, if you noticed the anxiety.

Nineteen young Muslim women from Gujarat with 19 stories to tell. Allof them unexceptionally disturbing and tragic. They were invited tovisit Mumbai by Aawaz-e-Niswan, a remarkable organisation that workswith Muslim women in Mumbai and is now extending its work to women inother cities. The very ordinary, mostly lower middle class Muslimwomen from this organisation, many of whom have been personally searedby communal riots such as those that tore Mumbai apart in 1992-93,decided to reach out to their sisters in Gujarat after the communalcarnage of 2002. They visited some of the worst affected areas; theyheard the stories from women who did not know how they would pick upthe threads of their lives again. And they decided that they would dosomething for the younger women, many of whom expressed adetermination to continue with their education, to seek professionalqualifications and to work and be independent.

For some of the girls from Dahod, Fatehpura, Jalod and Vadodara, eventravelling in a train was a novel experience. The five from Fatehpura,a small town bordering Rajasthan, had never seen a film in a cinematheatre. The women from Jalod said there was a theatre in their town,but women never went there. So one of the highpoints of their visit toMumbai was seeing a film in a theatre. They could not get over thefact that as women they could do this.

Also for the first time, these women travelled around the city bynight. Mumbai by night, or any city by night, was something they couldnot have imagined doing in their wildest dreams. Yet they went aroundand no one looked at them strangely. They were just some amongthousands of men and women who inhabit Mumbai's public spaces till allhours of the night.

"We have found a lot of happiness here," said one girl. Happiness?After spending just three days in an overcrowded, hot, dirty city?"The love we see on the faces here we don't see there," said another."We never get izzat (respect) anywhere in Gujarat," said another. Itwas interesting to see how the very anonymity of a big city can meanso much to people who live surrounded by hate.

That hate lurks around every turn, they said. Everyday they see on thestreets the perpetrators of the crimes that led to the death anddestruction of their community. "Even now if we pass by, they shout atus, use bad language," said a primary school teacher from Godhra. "Wecan see our things, our furniture, even our clothes, being used byother people," said a student from Fatehpura. She broke down as shespoke of how her house was burnt and looted, forcing her family to runacross the border to Rajasthan.

If there is one good thing that has come out of this evil, say many ofthe girls, it is the increasing emphasis on women's education. "Wegirls thought that if we had been educated, we could have taken a goodjob and supported our families," said one. Families with no earningmember left did not get anything more than a meagre compensation.This, she said, forced many parents to realise the value of educationand professional training.

So what did they want to do once they graduated? Most said they wantedto become teachers. But at least two said they wanted to join thepolice.

But the down side is that many girls never had a chance to make thatchoice. With parents worried about the future of their daughters inthe immediate aftermath of the violence, many girls were married offto men they had never met at the relief camps. It is unlikely thatthese young women will have the freedom to travel to Mumbai at theinvitation of a women's group, to go to the theatre, to wander aroundthe city at night, to travel in trains and buses.

Life for the Muslim women of Gujarat, as was evident from the waythese 19 spoke, consists of "earlier" and "now". "Earlier", they hadHindu friends, went to each other's homes, even celebrated eachother's festivals. "Now" this is not possible, they are even afraid togo through Hindu areas and the question of enjoying each other'sfestivals does not arise. "Even today we are told, Pakistan is yours,go to Pakistan. The Hindus have come back to the city, the Muslimshave moved out. India has already been divided but now even our cityof Vadodara is divided into India and mini-Pakistan," said Nilofer.

Just a day before we met these women, the Supreme Court had orderedthe reopening of over 2,000 cases filed during the communal trouble of2002 that the local police had closed. A 10-member committee has beenset up.

The process is forcing all of us to revisit the horror of those days.The arrest of Police Sub-Inspector R.J. Patil, for instance, whoadmitted that he had burnt 13 bodies of the victims of what is knownas the Ambika Society massacre, without sending specimens for forensicanalysis, is only the beginning of more gruesome details that willemerge.

Yet, even this tentative beginning represents hope for many Muslims inGujarat. Said Nilofer from Vadodara, "Even if these cases arereopened, and regardless of whether there is justice or not, at leastin front of society these people will be named." She felt that thearrest of men like Patil was an important gesture for her traumatisedcommunity.

E-mail the writer ***@thehindu.co.in

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2004/09/05/stories/2004090500290300.htm

No time for coffee in Copenhagen

TABISH KHAIR is not writing about the numerous lives lost in asenseless and criminal act of violence on September 11. Instead, hewrites about the voices he has heard thereafter; a sound that has acertain tone to it and which has set him wondering about abstracthatred and prejudice.

THERE are moments that cleave Time into two. Everything that happensafterwards happens in a different world. World War II was one suchmoment for Europe. The suicide-hijack-crashing of four passengerplanes and the destruction of the World Trade Center is such a momentfor the world.

I will not write about the 5,000 lives lost in a senseless andcriminal act of violence. Such human loss escapes the limits oflanguage and representation. One can only stand silent in front of themonuments of sorrow that tens of thousands - relatives, friends,colleagues - will carry in their hearts for the rest of their lives.It is a sorrow the rest of us can only share in silence.

I cannot write about silence. And I should not for, in Copenhagen, Ihave been deluged with sound: the opinions of ordinary people, thefilm-like coverage of the tragedy by Cable News Network (CNN), thevoices of commentators and politicians. Much of this sound had acertain tone to it and that tone set me wondering. Is there much of adifference between the terrorists who struck back at a group ofpoliticians by targeting tens of thousands of innocent people andthose voices that seem to be using the cruel act of a handful ofpresumed Islamic terrorists to tarnish and blame entire populations ofMuslims and Arabs? Do not both the acts demonstrate the same type ofabstract hatred and prejudice?

But the questions never end. On the margins of time, in the splitspace between worlds, one is always deluged with questions.

For example, the first Danish person who brought me news of thetragedy said that he was against violence of any kind and added thathe would understand it if Americans decided to hit back. Why is itthat we always justify our own violence, while the violence of theenemy is sheer sacrilege? Isn't that why there were shocking picturesof some Palestinians celebrating: people who have become so used tothe idea of missiles being launched at their own buildings by Israeliforces and the notion of reciprocal violence that they could not feelthe inhumanity of their celebration?

But, then, is this what we can write about: this spiral of violenceand inhumanity? Is this immense tragedy going to remain at such ageneral level of discourse?

The answer seems to be "yes" if various media discussions in the Westare to be believed. But it has to be "no" if we are to salvage somesense from the wanton destruction.

It is easy for us to sit here in our cosy sitting rooms in Copenhagen,holding a cup of coffee, munching a biscuit, watching the tragedyunfold almost as fluently as a film on the idiot box, and speak ingeneral terms. What we are doing is celebrating our own humanity, andall human beings - even terrorists - are convinced of their ownsuperior humanity. Many of the most inhuman acts known to humanityhave been the consequence of such a conviction. We need to go beyondit. We owe it to the victims of the tragedy to go beyond it.

The second person who called me with news of the tragedy was myfather: a devout Muslim doctor who has lived most of his life in asmall town in Bihar. He was shocked by the news. How could anyone dothis, he said again and again. The word he used was "anyone". I wentback to the TV and, in spite of the fact that no one knew anythingabout the identities of the terrorists, I did not hear too many peoplesay "anyone". I heard "Muslim", "Islamic", "Middle Eastern", "Arab".

These were people who had already decided to exclude entirepopulations from the circumference of their definitions of humanity.My father's "anyone" had been reduced by many of these contributors to"Arab" or "Muslim", even to the very type of an Arab or Muslim. Icould feel the irreligious "Muslim" in me cringe every time I heardsuch discussions. I could feel my father being put in the dock.

It is so comfortable, this celebration of our own humanity. It can beso inhuman, this celebration of our own humanity.

But what about violence?

Thomas Burnet, the late 17th century English divine, wrote that theRoman Catholic Church persecuted prophets of Apocalyptic violence(even though Apocalypse and the millennium were prophesied in theBible and, as such, should have been welcome to the church), becauseit was in those days a church of privilege. Apocalyptic violence,Burnet argued, was always the last resort of the persecuted and wouldbe disliked by those who "have lived always in pomp and prosperity".

Violence, in other words, is seldom a free choice. It is predicatedupon most individuals by circumstances. These individuals are usuallythose who labour under an overpowering feeling of injustice anddeprivation. However senseless it might be, behind all violence liesthe rubble of shattered hopes, of real and imagined injustices, ofhuman desperation and, consequently, inhuman hatred. Let us not takerefuge in the easy excuse that we are against violence. For all of us,given certain circumstances, are capable of violence or sympathy withviolence. While a thousand candles have been lit in Copenhagen forthose who died in the United States, let us also light a candle or twofor those who die - and thousands do every day, with or without"Western" complicity - in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda .... Letus not traffic in the worth of human lives.

No, large descriptions like "violence" do not help if we stay confinedto that general level. Neither does the kind of cry for vengeance thatone heard in the voice of many Americans and Europeans. It is truethat we have to take a stand against violence. Not just violence ofone kind, we have to take a stand against all kinds of violence - theviolence of terrorists as well as the violence of State agencies,physical violence that leads to the death of bystanders as well aseconomic violence that leads to the starvation of millions in a worldthat has enough to go around. More than enough.

It is time we in the West think a bit before we bite into the cake ofour affluence and drink the coffee of our civilised condemnation.

If general sentiments will not do, what, then, about the specificlessons that we can draw from this tragedy?

One of the things that this outrage has demonstrated is theineffectiveness of any kind of military shield. The only shield thatcan be effective is the shield of a more just world. And for the worldto be made just and equal, it not only needs some of the resources ofthe affluent, it also has to be made democratic.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has made itself into the target of extremistgroups largely because it has tried to go solo or exert undueinfluence in certain international quarters. The internal democracy ofthe U.S. seldom gets translated into international democracy. Hadcertain decisions been taken through the channels of the UnitedNations (not a military alliance of the privileged, like the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)), the U.S. would have been onlyone nation among many. The burden, the "blame" and the risks wouldhave been shared. There are advantages to democracy at theinternational level, but it has to be true democracy. And the finallesson is that of the dangers of abstract hatred and prejudice. Theact of one leader or a group cannot be blamed in a generalised way onan entire people or country, as the terrorists seem to have done. Butthis is a lesson that we should also remember every time someone usesthe dastardly act of a handful of presumed Islamic terrorists toimplicitly or explicitly blame entire populations of Muslims andArabs.

The crashes that reduced the World Trade Center to rubble and the twoterror-inducing plane crashes elsewhere have cleft our age into two.On the other side of this smoking chasm of blood and bitterness, liesanother world. It can be a world in which all the mistakes of the past- global inequality, socio-economic exploitation, lack ofinternational democracy, lack of national democracy and literacy insome nations, prejudice, hatred - all these mistakes are consolidatedinto a world of greater violence and suffering. Or we may, finally,learn to work towards a world, a very different world, where we willtackle not the consequences of senseless tragedies but the reasons forthem. A world in which we will condemn not only a certain kind ofviolence, but all violence; a world in which we will love not only ourhumanity, but all humanity.

In order to make this choice we have to look deep into our own heartsbefore we tidy away the tea things and swap the channel in places likeCopenhagen.

People who commit hate crimes against Americans with Middle Easternbackgrounds in the wake of the terrorist attacks will be prosecuted"to the fullest extent of the law", according to a top JusticeDepartment official.

According to new federal hate crime statistics released recently:

* Hate crimes accounted for nearly 3,000 of the roughly 5.4 millionvictim-related crimes examined in a study which looked at casesreported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by local policein more than a dozen states from 1997 to 1999.

* Among the racially motivated incidents, 60 per cent targeted Blacks,30 per cent targeted Whites and the rest targeted Asians and AmericanIndians. Forty-one per cent of the incidents involving religious biastargeted Jewish people.

* Violent crime was the most serious offence in 60 per cent of thehate crimes, typically involving intimidation or simple assault.

* More than half of the violent hate crime victims were 24 years oldor younger. Among the offenders, 31 per cent of violent offenders and46 per cent of property offenders were under age 18.

Source: Internet

(The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of English, CopenhagenUniversity, Denmark.)

Hinduism is facing a great many challenges, both external andinternal. On the outside, ill-wishers are trying to malign anddismantle it. Within, we have practitioners and leaders who areinsensitive to, or unaware of the social, political, and ethicalforces that are sweeping the world. Navya Shastra consists of a groupof Hindus who deeply love and care for our rich and ancient tradition.We are also very concerned about its future.We strongly feel that one major blemish in the Hindu world (withinIndia) is the pernicious aspect of the caste system which denies equalspiritual rights to all Hindus, and imposes a conceptual hierarchythat considers some Hindus to be superior/inferior to other Hindus onthe basis of their birth. We do not think that the dehumanization ofHindus or of any other people is part of the Vedas, Sanskrit orTamil.

If some shastras tolerated or encouraged caste-based socialinjustices, we reject them, and declare it is time to formulate asystem of values consistent with the age in which we live(yugadharma). We are against caste hierarchy and caste injustices, notonly because they are not sanctioned in the Vedas, but also becausethey are morally wrong, unacceptable, and anachronistic in the worldin which we live. We also need to rid Hindu society of its casteconstraints, because they undermine the future of the religion as aviable system in the modern world. We are dreaming of a day when theloftier Hindu visions in Sanatana Dharma will spread all over theworld. There will come a time when practitioners of other religioussystems will resonate with the universal values and visions that areimplicit in the roots of Hinduism.

We invite all our Hindu brothers and sisters to join us in raisingtheir voices against casteism, and for making Hinduism a greaterreligion than what she has ever been.

Lobby all dharmacharyas to reflect on the fossilized iniquities inSanatana Dharma. We will actively strive to catalyze the Hinduleadership into addressing the caste issue and other salient socialissues.

Engender a national debate on a Navya Shastra--one that would redressthe inequalities inherent in the caste system. While the spiritualintuition of our sages is timeless and eternal, the social tenetswhich govern Hindu society have never been static--our lawgivers havereinterpreted them in different eras.

Conduct a respectful dialogue on reformulating the social tenets ofSanatana Dharma, in which all members of our community are welcomed toparticipate.

Track and promote the efforts of Hindu/Indian organizations andcharities who are working to eradicate caste discrimination in India._________________________________________________

Special Announcement: Listen to Jaishree Gopal, Chairman of NavyaShastra on National Public Radio

http://shastras.org/

NAVYA SHASTRA VISION STATEMENT

Most Hindus are shocked to know that, according to the ancientDharmashastras, over 80% of the Hindu population is forbidden to readthe Vedas. These law books were written by sages as procedural andlegal outlines for governing society, and they have remained de factoauthority on religious matters to this day. For example, sometraditional mathas still forbid Vedic instruction to anyone who is nota ?dwija?--a male born into one of the three upper castes.

A recent Supreme Court of India decision held that non-brahmins arenow entitled to serve as temple priests, effectively opening up theVedas and Agamas to all seekers. While the ruling is laudable, wewonder whether this judicial activism is sufficient to transfigure theoften miserable status of the so called lower castes. Most religiousleaders have remained conspicuously silent on the decision and,whether out of indifference or disapproval, have not publiclyreflected on the potential consequences of the decision for Hindusociety. Until we have a convergence of sentiment towards a truecasteless society--one acknowledged by religious leaders, thegovernment and the Hindu community alike--all steps towardsimprovement will be tentative gestures, at odds with recrudescentcasteist power structures that operate frightfully and efficiently inrural India.

Rather than bemoaning, with the fatalists, the inexorably staticnature of society, or assuming, with the optimists, that change is anatural process, we have decided to take matters into our own hands byinciting a public debate on the caste issue and other salient socialissues. Would a Navya Shastra (or a comprehensive reinterpretation ofexisting Dharmashastras), proposing a more egalitarian configurationof Hindu society, be a beneficial template for affecting change? Webelieve shastric and social reform is important for several reasons.

1. The caste system, as it is currently structured, spirituallydisenfranchises the vast majority of Hindus: Shudras, Dalits,Adivasis, women and converts. No one, we believe, has studied thenegative psychological implications of such birth-basedclassifications on the so called lower castes. A recent wave of Dalitatrocities morbidly reveals that caste discrimination is still rampantthroughout India. This leaves many spiritually inclined Hindus feelingthat they are unwanted, peripheral stragglers, giving credence toHegel?s assertion that the caste system breeds ?spiritual serfdom?. ANavya Shastra would open the Vedas (as they are traditionally taught)to everyone, regardless of birth.

2. Until we have a Navya Shastra, the old Dharmashastras will remain,by default, the governing authority on matters concerning thereligious status of Hindus. It would be rather absurd for thegovernment to comment on every religious controversy affecting Hindus.After all, in a truly secular society, the government does notinterfere in religious matters. The will to change must come from theHindu leadership itself.

3. Non-Hindus who wish to convert to Hinduism cannot truly do so,because the Dharmashastras make no place for them. This is veryunfortunate; arresting what was once a great enthusiasm for the HinduDharma in the West.

4. Women are treated as second class citizens. A Navya Shastra wouldalso increase the status of women.

5. Though there are many reformist sects that have sought to redressthese inequalities, we feel it is crucially important for orthodoxy toassent to this effort. Otherwise we will have a fractured Hinduism,with different groups asserting that they alone represent the truth.

Please join our effort by participating in our community forum. Wewelcome all sincere strategies for social change. We have anunprecedented opportunity to make a difference together. Let?s not letanyone else make it for us.

The organization was particularly critical of the Vishwa HinduParishad, which came out against Article 377. "Unable to find anystrong theological basis in Hinduism for opposing homosexuality, theVHP relied on the old canard that the family structure would somehowbe threatened by the decision," said Sugrutha Ramaswamy, a NavyaShastra activist. "This is an unscientific understanding ofhomosexuality, which is not a lifestyle choice but rather an inherenthuman condition," she added. ....

Other news coverageEdge Boston, July 10, 2009

India Abroad on Caste in the USCaste Adrift, May 22, 2009Caste and US, May 22, 2009

Story of a Reformer by Jaishree Gopal, a chapter in the bookReflections by IITians published by Ram Krishnaswamy

Excerpt from Reflections by IITians, Dec 2008

I want to change what people do and believe in Hindu society,especially with regards to caste and gender discrimination.Dr. Jaishree Gopal, IITM & IITD AlumnaCo Founder of Navya ShastraInterview with D. Murali of Hindu Business Line

Navya Shastra, the international Hindu reform organization based inTroy, Mich., sent out a press release Friday urging California votersto reject Proposition 8, which would eliminate the right of same-sexcouples to marry under California law. ....

...Navya Shastra, the organisation based in Troy, Michigan, whichearlier spoke out against astrology, female foeticide and Dalitdiscrimination, has argued that hyper-sensitivity over inaccurate ordistorted religious depictions in mass media erodes the tradition oftolerance of criticism in the Hindu faith....

Other news coverageZee News, May 22, 2008Times of India, May 21, 2008LA Times, May 2008Asia Arts, UCLA, May 30, 2008

...Navya Shastra also called on the Hindu community and itsorganizations to allow daughters to impart final rites at the funeralsof their parents. "One religious reason why boys are favored amongHindus is because of the anachronistic belief that only a son canformally conduct this ceremony, so a girl is totally worthless in thisregard," said Dr. Jaishree Gopal, Navya Shastra Chairman....

Other news coveragePro-Life Blog, May 07, 2008Also appeared in Print Edition of India West

Navya Shastra on MalaysiaNavya Shastra condemns the Government of Malaysia for anti-Hindudiscriminationfrom Asian Tribune, November 27, 2007

...One Navya Shastra member who participated in the rally reportedanonymously: "We have changed the political equations at home andinspired minorities everywhere. We walked the talk. We smelled thetear gas and it swelled our chests. Like Rosa Parks we said, 'No!'" Itfurther added that Navya Shastra stands in complete solidarity withthe Hindu community and all other minorities in Malaysia who are thevictims of government persecution.... ....

Navya Shastra Award of RecognitionNavya Shastra Award to two students from Karnatakafrom Manglorean.com, August 15, 2007

...These two young women have demonstrated that by challengingoutmoded institutions and customs in a personal way, one can have animpact on society at large. To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi, it isimportant for our youth to 'be the change' they want to see," said Dr.Jaishree Gopal, Navya Shastra Chairman.... ....

Navya Shastra confers the title of Acharya Vidyasagar on ProfessorV.V. RamanProfessor V.V. Raman receives title "Acharya Vidyasagar"from Rochester Community Newsletter, May 28, 2007

...Navya Shastra of Troy, Michigan, the international Hindu reformorganization, honored Professor V.V. Raman by conferring on him thetitle "Acharya Vidyasagar" in recognition of his many contributions toHinduism. Dr. Jaishree Gopal, Chairman of Navya Shastra, said “Inancient India, an acharya was a teacher of profound truths, a guide onthe spiritual path, and someone an entire community looked up to....

..."We are appalled to know about the mindless throwing away of largeamounts of food by the Puri temple administration at the instigationof pujaris (priests) with a medieval mindset at a time and place wherethere are thousands of poor and hungry people," said theorganisation's chairman, Dr Jaishree Gopal. ....Other news coverageIndia's Tolerance Levels Tested as American Enters ForbiddenSanctuary, March, 2007

Report from a Dalit villageGhosts of the Pastfrom India Abroad, Feb 18, 2007

...It left me with the thought that true prosperity was impossibleuntil social advancement and a sense of equality became firmlyentrenched in our communities. ...

..."What concerns us is that millions of people may rationalise theirmistreatment of women based upon the Abhishek-Aishwarya example," saidJaishree Gopal, Navya Shastra Chairman, in a press statement. ....Other news coverage

We, at Navya Shastra, deeply regret and apologize for the atrocitiescommitted on the sons and daughters of the depressed communities ofIndia, including the tribals, the "untouchables" and all of the castesdeemed as low.... ....

An Unqualified Apology to Every Untouchable by Dr Bhaskar Dasguptafrom desicritic, February 2, 2006

...So here it is, I fully endorse and join Navya Shastra, inapologising to the other castes, for what I and my forefathers mayhave done and promise that I will raise my voice against thisdisgusting practice, and hopefully help remove this by my words aswell as my behaviour.... . ...

...They also say that it would serve the dalits' cause better if thetextbooks said that "untouchability is a living reality in India,"instead of simply going by the Hindu groups' suggestion that the bookssay that it is illegal to treat someone as an untouchable, VikramMasson, co-founder of Navya Shastra, a U.S.-based non-profitorganization that speaks out against caste-related issues, told India-West. ....Navya Shastra Organizations Calls for Fairer View in CaliforniaTextbooksfrom HPI, February 2, 2006

...Navya Shastra is also dismayed that the school board is consideringredacting out any mention of Dalits. While the former untouchables ofIndia have been called or call themselves many things, includingAvarna and Harijan, the term Dalit is increasingly considered anempowering symbol of unity among a section of the former untouchables,including those who still retain their Hindu affiliation, and elidingtheir identity must be viewed as an act of upper-caste hegemony. . ...

..."A U.S.-based group of Hindu activists called Navya Shastra,meanwhile, called on the pope to learn more about Hinduism. "Clearlyhe is misinformed about the central practices and tenets which bindthe world's 800 million Hindus," said co-chairman Vikram Masson. ....

...A U.S.-based group of world Hindu activists, Navya Shastra, hopedthe new Pope would learn more about its religion. "Ratzinger hasdescribed Hindu meditative practices as 'auto-erotic' and has statedthat the Hindu doctrine of karma is 'morally cruel'," its co-chairmanVikram Masson said. "Clearly he is misinformed about the centralpractices and tenets which bind the world's 800 million Hindus....

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH'S VIEWS ON OTHER FAITH GROUPS, AND THEIRREACTIONSfrom Religious Tolerance

..."Dr. Jaishree Gopal, is co-chairperson of Navya Shastra. She wrote:"What is needed now is ecumenism and mutual trust. We hope that thenew Pope comes to understand this, because religious difference andcompetition is causing mounting global conflict." ....US Hindu organisation accuses VHP of casteismfrom Times of India, Mar 06, 2005

..."This is a bizarre act of conceptual dehumanisation," the statementquoted Navya Shastra co-chairperson Jaishree Gopal as saying. Thestatement urged all Hindu organisations involved in proselytisingactivities to do away with attaching cast labels to new converts."Surely all modern Hindu reformers agree that there is no spiritualmerit attached to any caste affiliation," the statement added....(This news item also appeared in various other publications: HindustanTimes, Pluralism.org, Kerala News, Kerala Next, Express Newsline,Yahoo India)God's Wrath in India?from Beliefnet, Jan 5, 2005

...Another Hindu group, the reformist Navya Shastra, issued a pressrelease condemning Hindu organizations that have bought into the act-of-God view, comparing their remarks to those of Christian leaderslike Jerry Falwell. While acknowledging, like Vaishnav, that karmacould have played a role in the deaths, the group, made of Hinduscholars, practitioners and priests outside India, suggested that itwas more important to focus on helping survivors than trying toexplain why the disaster happened. ....Tsunami News Coveragefrom Times of India, Dec 28, 2004NEW YORK: With people relating tsunami to God's wrath, a Hindu groupis out to re-educate masses.from Hindustan Times, Dec 28, 2004A Michigan-based Hindu group has condemned labelling Sunday's tsunamitragedy a "vengeful act of God" and asked the global Hindu communityto contribute generously to assist victims of the catastrophe....from Express Newsline, Europe, Dec 28, 2004Navya Shastra, a global organization of scholars, activists, priestsand lay people dedicated to fostering the spiritual equality of allHindus, has called upon the global Hindu community to contributegenerously to the victims of the December 26 earthquake-cum Tsunamiwave attack in South East Asia. ...from Guardian UK, Dec 28, 2004As the world grapples with the scale of the disaster of Indian Oceantidal wave, the Guardian's Martin Kettle poses a troubling questionfor those who believe in God. ...But a Michigan-based Hindu group,Navya Shastra, has condemned organisations in India for describing thedisaster as a "vengeful act of God" for the arrest of a Hindu seer, onmurder and other charges. ...This news item also appeared in various other publications: YahooIndia, MSN news, Bangladesh Sun, WebIndia, NetIndia, Manorama Online,Kerala News, Kerala Next, ReligiousTolerance.orgHindu American Foundation Files Amicus Brief with US Supreme Court inTen Commandments Case HPIfrom hpi archives, Dec, 21, 2004

...The 34-page brief was signed by HAF, Arsha Vidya Pitham, Arya Samajof Michigan, Hindu International Council Against Defamation, HinduUniversity of America, Navya Shastra, Saiva Siddhanta Church(publisher through its teaching wing, Himalayan Academy, of HinduismToday and HPI), Federation of Jain Associations in North America,Interfaith Freedom Foundation and prominent Buddhist scholar andDirector of Tibet House, Professor Robert Thurman....

...Navya Shastra research director Gautham Rao, said money for thecrown had come through donations and it could have been put to betteruse. "Clearly at this time in Indian history, when the majority ofIndian citizens continue to live at or near poverty levels, we feltthe money should have been spent on social service," hesaid.... ...Navya Shastra also questioned the participation of(Christian) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy inthe "opulent" (Hindu) ceremony.(this news item also appeared in Yahoo India, MSN India, Indian angle,123Bharat.com, New Kerala portals)

...On September 2, 2004, ten organizations--representing variousreligious denominations--submitted an amicus (friend of the court)letter (PDF format, 66K) in support of The Becket Fund's motion for apreliminary injunction against the defendants of the federal suit. TheHindu American Foundation presented the letter on behalf of AGNICorporation, the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, theHindu Human Rights Group, the Hindu International Council AgainstDefamation, Hindu University of America, Ile Obatala Oya, KanchiKamakoti Seva Foundation, Navya Shastra, and the Queens Federation ofChurches....

...While the Indian government has encouraged such reforms to anextent, the organization insists that Hindus themselves should take upthe cause while avoiding factionalism. At the same time, the group hasbeen critical of Dalits for highlighting caste discrimination withoutactively working with Hindu leaders to resolve the problem.... ....

...Navya Shastra is a large group of believers of the Hindu Dharmadomicled in various countries. We believe that chariot of Hindusociety cannot move forward if any of the five horses lag behind. Wehave therefore committed ourselves to the mission of facilitatingoptimal spiritual development of all Hindus regardless of caste orgender....Bound by the same threadfrom India Abroad, Teenspeak, Jan 23, 2004

...Let us start modifying our traditions as seen fit withoutdestroying the essence, beginning with allowing women and all Hindusto take part in Upanyanam and feel equal in this manner.

Navya Shastra, a US-based global Hindu organization of scholars,activists, priests and laypeople, has criticized the Dalitrepresentatives and organizers of the World Social Forum forhighlighting the Hindu dimensions of discrimination against the Dalitcommunity while refusing to work with the Hindu leadership to bringabout religious reforms...Solar Flares by Harsh Kabrafrom Outlook, Dec 15, 2003

..."The Vedas and its chanting tradition form the fountainhead, thevery epicentre, of the religious beliefs of over 800 million people,"Vikram Masson, co-chairman, NS, told Outlook from New Jersey. "Be it afarmer in Tamil Nadu or a fisherman in Bengal, some part of hisspiritual worldview has been inspired by the utterances of the rishis.By closeting the Vedas with other cultural expressions, UNESCO hasmarginalised and diminished the most important scriptures in the Hindutradition."....

End caste discrimination, Hindu leaders urgedfrom IANS, Nov 28, 2003

...Here we have a historic opportunity to declare to the world thatHinduism will reform itself for ever of caste discrimination," saidVikram Masson, Navya Shastra co-chairman. "Hinduism, which isthousands of years old, has never had a significant reformistmovement,"...

Don’t place Vedas in a cabinet of curiosfrom Deccan Herald, Nov 26, 2003

...Several noteworthy Hindu reformers and thinkers, including SwamiDayanada Saraswati and Dr. Sarvapelli Radhakrishnan, have advocatedthat the Vedic tradition be open to all. We should not ignore theirwisdom.

A US-based Hindu organisation has protested to Unesco against itsdecision to club Vedic chanting tradition as a folk art along with theBelgian carnival of Binche and Indonesia's Wayang puppet theatre....

A recent report of a study conducted across 1,655 villages in theIndian state of Gujarat, representing 98,000 Dalits, revealed theshocking fact that 97% of them feel that they are unwelcome at Hindutemples, religious gatherings and public discourses on scripture.Researchers did not find a single village that was free from thepractice of untouchability. (“No temple entry for dalits in Gujarat,”Times of India, 7 December 2009). Such exclusion is neither infrequentnor limited to Gujarat. The BBC News (“Fury over south India templeban,”15 October, 2009) reported an incident of stone throwing toprotest Dalits entering a temple near Vedaranyam in the state of TamilNadu. Last month the High Court of Chennai issued an order, againstthe wishes of temple trustees, that a temple procession pass through aDalit community in the Villipuram District. Dalit (oppressed) is thename preferred by those who have been relegated to the lowest rungs ofthe caste ladder and regarded as untouchable by members of uppercastes. Dalits constitute around 20% of the Indian population.

Although the exclusion of Dalits from places of Hindu worship ought tobe a matter of deep concern and distress, there is hardly a ripple ofprotest in the sea of Hindu complacency. Shutting the doors of Hindutemples to Dalits stands in bewildering contrast to the anxiety inother religious traditions about dwindling numbers and the expenditureof considerable resources to attract the faithful. It should notsurprise that those debarred from Hindu sanctums enter, in significantnumbers, the open and inviting doors of others. Those in India andoutside who are vociferous opponents of religious conversion mustunderstand and acknowledge the Dalit experience of the Hindu traditionas oppressive and negating their dignity and self-worth. Conversion isa challenge for Hindus to consider the relationship between religiouspractice and systemic oppression. Exclusion from temples is only onemanifestation of such oppression.

It troubles deeply also that, with notable exceptions, the principalvoices of protest over exclusion are not those of Hindu leaders. Inthe case of anti-Dalit violence in the town of Vedaranyam, referred toabove, the protests were led by supporters of the Communist Party ofIndia –Marxist. In other cases, secular-minded human rights activistsare at the forefront of the agitation on behalf of the Dalits. Earlierthis year, Navin Pillay, UN Commissioner for Human Rights, condemnedcaste as negating the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination and called for a UN convention to outlaw discriminationbased on caste. The response of silence from Hindus may be interpretedas support for barring Dalits from places of worship. Even moreimportantly, indifference gives validation to the wrong impressionthat the Hindu tradition has no theological ground or core forchallenging the human inequality that is at the root of the Dalitostracization and oppression.

The assumptions of human inequality that explain the continuingpersistence of untouchability need an urgent, vigorous and unambiguoustheological repudiation originating from the non-negotiable heart ofthe Hindu tradition. Although Hinduism is admittedly diverse, itsmajor traditions are unanimous in affirming the equal existence of Godin every being. “God,” the Bhagavadgita proclaims, “ lives in theheart of all beings.” This core theological teaching must become thebasis for the assertion of the equal dignity and worth of every humanbeing and the motivation for challenging and transforming theoppressive structures of caste that, in reality, deny and violate theluminous presence of God in all. Although every unjust expression ofcaste needs to be denounced, the shutting of temple doors to personspleading for the opportunity to worship challenges, in a special way,the meaning and legitimacy of Hinduism as a religious tradition. Forthis reason, Hindus must commit themselves with tireless determinationto the work of welcoming Dalits into every Hindu place of worship.Such work must be seen as fundamental to Hindu identity and themeaning of belonging to the community of Hindus.

While we must commend and support Hindu leaders and movements workingalready for the well being of Dalits and their equality and dignity,we must recognize also that many Hindu leaders may not be at theforefront of such a religiously inspired movement. They are thebeneficiaries of the privileges of caste and immune to the pain ofthose who live at the margins. All Hindus who understand thecontradiction between teachings centered on God’s embodiment in everyhuman being and the exclusion of people from places of worship mustembrace this cause. Hindus settled outside of India who enjoy theprivileges of living in free societies and the protection of the lawagainst unequal and unjust treatment, have special obligations in thismatter. They need to lift their voices in protest against practices inthe name of Hinduism that denigrate human beings. They must ensurethat Hindu leaders, and especially those who travel often to the Westand who are the recipients of their donations and reverence, heartheir voices. They must make clear the unacceptability of religiousdiscrimination and demand that leaders renounce silence andindifference and become active advocates for change. Every Hinduleader must be challenged to take a stand in this matter.

The Constitution of India specifies, “The State shall not discriminateagainst any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place ofbirth.” Constitutional and legal measures, as necessary as these are,have not and will not eliminate all forms of discrimination based oncaste inequality. Legal measures can never cause the joyous embrace ofall that follows from awakening to God’s presence in each heart.Religious vision and wisdom can be the source of such transformedrelationships. Hinduism needs an unequivocal theological proclamationthat complements constitutional law by repudiating caste injustice andthat commits Hindus to the equal worth of all human beings. Openingthe doors of all Hindu temples to Dalits is an important step, anurgent religious matter and an opportunity for the Hindu tradition, inour time, to define itself. Let this be our collective Hinduresolution in 2010.

A new book seeks to enhance understanding of the interconnectionsbetween science and religion and promote greater harmony in the long-running debate between the empirical and spiritual schools of thought.

Truth and Tension in Science and Religion, authored by noted physicistand religious scholar V. V Raman, provides a historical overview ofthe development and spread of scientific inquiry and its interactionwith various religious schools of thought. It also seeks to present abalanced review of the key tenants of both science and religion andexplore the similarities and areas for cooperation between them.

“While most people can name the many differences between scientificinquiry and faith, there are as many similarities between the twoschools and, in fact, one has been influenced by the other forcenturies,” says Raman, professor emeritus of physics and humanitiesat Rochester Institute of Technology. “Science and religion are muchmore interconnected than we often realize and by examining this I hopeto reduce the tension between theologians and scientists and increasecollaboration.”

For example, Jaishree Gopal, director of Navya Shastra, theinternational Hindu reform organization, notes that “even whilequoting the best of ethics from various religious traditions, Raman’sbook makes it clear that it is the modern world view, imbued with thescientific perspective, that has led to our collective moral awakeningregarding practices such as racism, slavery and untouchability.”

Raman has spent nearly three decades studying the intersectionsbetween philosophy, religion and science and currently serves as asenior fellow of the Metanexus Institute on Science and Religion. Heis the author of 11 books and in 2006 was awarded the Raja Rao awardfor outstanding contributions to South Asian literature.

The decriminalization of same-gender intimacy between consentingadults in India is viewed by GLBT equality advocates as a major stepforward, but not a cure-all for the societal prejudices faced byIndian gays.

As reported at New American Media on July 10, the section of theIndian penal code, Article 377--a relic of the days when Britaindominated the country under colonial rule--was struck down on Jyly 2by the Delhi High Court, which found the law to be in violation ofconstitutional protections.

The article carried a quoted from GLBT equality proponent Sandip Roy,who said, "The community here has reacted ecstatically. Most people Italked to said over and over again that they did not think it wouldhappen in their lifetime."

Celebrations took place all over the globe. Said Roy, "There wereimpromptu celebrations in many cities. People went down to theStonewall Inn in New York where the modern gay rights movement beganin 1969.

"In San Francisco, friends distributed mithai at a bar in Castro.

"With Facebook and e-mail these days, the news was huge news as soonas it broke," Roy noted.

The article cited a Berkeley, CA life coach, Krishnakali Chaudhuri, asalso hailing the ruling, though he tempered his remarks with theobservation that societal bias still remains.

"I think overall it’s a small step in the right direction," saidChaudhuri, "but we have a long way to go."

One specific point of note, said Choudhury, was the distinctionbetween decriminalizing same-sex consensual intimacy between adultsand making it legal.

Said Chaudhury, "The international community of human rights is reallyapplauding the ruling but we have to understand that we have justdecriminalized homosexuality but we haven’t legalized it yet."

Added the GLBT equality advocate, "We need to legalize homosexualityand then we can make changes to all the qualities of workplace,marriage unions or health or everything else."

The article said that an American organization comprised of IndianAmericans had also hailed the court’s decision.

The Michigan-based Hindu organization Navya Shastra issued a statementreading, "For over a century, the law has given license to the stateto persecute individuals based on their sexual orientation.

"Navya Shastra urges the Government of India not to challenge theruling or to be swayed by religious chauvinists of any persuasion whowould deny equality to all citizens based on ancient interpretationsof religious texts."

The group took exception to the opposition of a Hindu political partyin India, which spoke out against the repeal.

Stated Navya Shastra’s Sugrutha Ramaswamy, "Unable to find any strongtheological basis in Hinduism for opposing homosexuality, the VHPrelied on the old canard that the family structure would somehow bethreatened by the decision."

Added Ramaswamy, "This is an unscientific understanding ofhomosexuality, which is not a lifestyle choice but rather an inherenthuman condition."

Others in India also spoke out against the repeal, including a guruwhose claims concerning the health benefits of yoga extend to sayingthat gays can be "cured" through the practice of yoga.

A Rediff News.com article from July 10 reported that guru BabaRamdev’s insistence that homosexuality is a pathological condition,and that it can be alleviated through yogic practice, was panned notonly by health professionals but also by his fellow yoga proponents.

The article said that Ramdev took his claims to the Indian SupremeCourt, which had previously been approached by a prominent astrologerwith a petition to re-implement the anti-gay statute.

Said the astrologer, Sushil Kumar Kaushal, "...even animals don’tindulge in such activities," going on to assert that higher rates ofHIV/AIDS would result from the decriminalization of adult consensualrelations between gays.

But health care professionals in the country have long lobbied for theend of the statute, pointing out that gay Indians were less likely toget tested and to practice safer sex as long as legal sanctions werein place against consensual same-sex adult intimacy.

Under the anti-gay law, same-sex intimacy could be punished by jailterms of up to ten years.

Ramdev’s claims were rebuffed by, among others, a physician named Dr.Devdutt Pattanak, who said, "Is his statement based on scripturalevidence or evidence-based medicine? It is neither."

Added Dr. Pattanak, "It is just a subjective remark."

Dr. Pattanak went on to point out that health professionals hadarrived at a quite different conclusion than had Ramdev.

"Thousands of hours of research have gone into the classification ofdiseases, and neither the World Health Organization nor anypsychiatric or psychology journal recognizes homosexuality as adisease," Dr. Pattanak noted.

"Do we believe scientific research or just an individual’s opinion,which may simply be a marketing gimmick?"

Yoga practitioner Deepika Mehta, who found healing through yoga afterbeing paralyzed in an accident, also spoke out against Ramdev’sclaims, the article said.

Ms. Mehta took exception with Ramdev’s essential thesis thathomosexuality is a disease, suggesting rather that, as most medicalexperts attest, it is innate and natural to gays.

Said Mehta, "Yoga is about acceptance and coming to terms with who youreally are, your purest core.

"It helps you shed the layers imposed by society.

"And in my experience, yoga has helped a lot of people come to termswith their sexual orientation, rather than live in denial," added Ms.Mehta.

Furthermore, Ramdev’s medical claims have no more basis in spiritualteaching than in medical fact. Said Dr. Pattanak, "Not even thescriptures recognize homosexuality as a disease."

The article quoted from an article Dr. Pattanak, who is also an expertin Indian mythology, had written.

"Though not part of the mainstream, its existence was acknowledged butnot approved," the article continued. "There was some degree oftolerance when the act expressed itself in heterosexual terms--whenmen ’became women’ in their desire for other men, as the hijra legacysuggests.’"

Nitin Karani, of the GLBT equality group Humsafar Trust, noted, "Whilewe don’t know what leads to it yet... we do know that homosexuality isinnate.

"And it is not a Western phenomenon, as some people are trying tolabel it," added Karani.

"Neither is it a disease."

Noted Karani, "A lot of gay people I know are into yoga and meditationand are extremely spiritual, but it has not resulted in any overnightconversions."

In a separate interview published July 10, Rediff.com News spoke withIndian GLBT equality proponent Manohar Elavarthi, who told thepublication, "Now it is a question of social tolerance. Just becausethe law has changed it does not mean that the attitude of the peoplewill change.

"However, I must add that the court verdict has opened things up forall of us. I only hope that the Supreme Court upholds the verdict."

Added Elavarthi, "What we want is a complete repeal of the Section 377of the Indian Penal Code.

"The IPC is guided by a feudal set up and it has not changed with thetimes," Elavarthi went on. "About social acceptance, we need to worktowards it.

Elavarthi reposnded to concerns that repealing the entire Article,which also addresses sexual assault and abuse, by saying, "...alongwith this we need to ensure that laws regarding sexual abuse, be itmale or female or children related laws need to be strengthened."

India is perhaps the only place in the world where people of differentreligions have been interacting with one another for centuries. In theWest, however, this is the first time they are interacting with manyreligions, including those from the East, as a result of modernisationand globalisation.

Though traditionally religions have been dividing us all, we havebecome more conscious of the differences as a result of increasedknowledge about other religions. However, eventually, people are goingto be learning from one another. For instance, yoga and meditationpractices from Hinduism are very common in the US. And some of the oft-emulated messages of Christianity and Islam are charity and peace,respectively.

Thus, even though you may continue to identify yourself to aparticular religion, you are going to be incorporating in your lifegood elements from other people’s religion, while at the same timediscarding those aspects of your religion that don’t seem right to youany more. As a result, compassion is going to increase for those whomwe call ‘others’. Definitely, the way we practise our religion isgoing to change in the future, more and more.

It is very important for all Indians to get involved in social reformmovement of all kinds, and especially think of caste and gender issuesin Hinduism without being defensive or apologetic, with an eye toreform rather than justify the current exclusive practices.

AM I A HINDU? International Best Seller said...Namasthe Jaishree: What you wrote is very true.

Every religion and every culture has the GOOD, the BAD and UGLYaspects in it and dwell on the negative aspects do not make any sense.

At the same time, we have to do everything in our power to eradicateBAD and UGLY aspects where ever we find them.

The very best aspect of Hinduism is

"ABOSULTE FREEDOM OF THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS."

Voltaire in Essay on Tolerance wrote: "I may disagree with what yousay, but I will defend to the death, your right to say it. "Hinduismis the symbolic representation of what Voltaire wrote.

May 26, 2009 7:41 PM

http://muralilistening.blogspot.com/2008/12/jaishree-gopal.html

November 01, 2008Hindus Urged to Vote Against Prop. 8

Navya Shastra, the international Hindu reform organization based inTroy, Mich., sent out a press release Friday urging California votersto reject Proposition 8, which would eliminate the right of same-sexcouples to marry under California law.

Navya Shastra, the international Hindu reform organization based inTroy, Mich., sent out a press release Friday urging California votersto reject Proposition 8, which would eliminate the right of same-sexcouples to marry under California law.

The organization notes that Hinduism has never classifiedhomosexuality as a sin. While some ancient law codes have beencritical of homosexual acts, the denomination has never called for thepersecution of gays. In fact, there is ample evidence that alternativelifestyles have been accepted throughout Hindu history. Several modernHindu leaders have also spoken positively of gay rights; however, manyAmerican Hindus remain uncomfortable with homosexuality.

“According to the Hindu contemplative tradition, we are allmanifestations of the one universal spirit, straight or gay, andworthy of the same respect and rights” said Jaishree Gopal, chairmanof Navya Shastra, in the release. “We urge American Hindus inCalifornia to remember this central insight of their faith when theyvote on November 4.” (The Advocate)

A US-based Hindu reform organisation has criticised the destroying ofhuge quantities of food at the Jagannath temple in Orissa by thetemple authorities because an American had entered the complex - anact seen as defiling the 12th century Hindu-only premises.

The Navya Shastra, an international Hindu reform organisation, saidthe act of the temple authorities had no vedic sanction.

"We are appalled to know about the mindless throwing away of largeamounts of food by the Puri temple administration at the instigationof pujaris (priests) with a medieval mindset at a time and place wherethere are thousands of poor and hungry people," said theorganisation's chairman, Dr Jaishree Gopal.

A 59-year-old American engineer from New York was thrown out of thetemple complex last Thursday, fined, taken to a local police stationand later released, despite his protestations that he was unaware ofthe temple's restrictions.

The Michigan-based Navya Shastra was founded in the United States in2002. According to its website, the organisation stands against"...caste hierarchy and caste injustices, not only because they arenot sanctioned in the Vedas, but also because they are morally wrong,unacceptable, and anachronistic in the world in which we live.

"Given the high levels of malnutrition among India's children, thisact (throwing away food), assuredly without vedic sanction, must bedeemed unacceptable," a press release by the organisation, said.

"The organisation is saddened and surprised that no Hindu leader ofany consequence has protested this unconscionable and anachronisticbehaviour. Instead of purifying the premises, the priests should seekto purify their own hearts and minds, and, along with other leaders,set a positive example for all devotees," said Dr Bala Aiyer, anadvisor of the organisation said.

Foreigners are not allowed to enter leading Hindu temples in Orissa,including the Jagannath temple at Puri and the Lingaraj temple there.

An American Christian woman, Pamela K. Fleig, who converted toHinduism after marrying an Indian from Uttar Pradesh, was denied entryinto the 11th century Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar in 2005.

Thailand's Crown Princess Sirindhorn was also not given permission tovisit the Jagannath temple in the same year, as she was a foreignerand Buddhist.

Even late prime minister Indira Gandhi - a born Hindu - was notallowed to enter the temple when she was in power because she hadmarried a Parsi.

http://shastras.org/mukundabrazil

Hindu group opposes Love Guru protests

New York, May 22: A Hindu reform organisation in the US has opposedthe growing protests by Hindu groups against upcoming Hollywood filmThe Love Guru , saying that calling for a ban on the comedy starringMike Myers would be going too far.

Navya Shastra, the organisation based in Troy, Michigan, which earlierspoke out against astrology, female foeticide and Dalitdiscrimination, has argued that hyper-sensitivity over inaccurate ordistorted religious depictions in mass media erodes the tradition oftolerance of criticism in the Hindu faith.

"Hindus have a remarkable history of freedom of thought andexpression. Unfortunately, this is being eroded these days byhypersensitive and misguided chauvinistic pressure groups, perhapstaking their cue from more chauvinistic traditions," Gautham Rao,Navya Shastra's research director, was quoted as saying in a pressrelease.

It said while it respects the right of the groups in the US andelsewhere to protest against the film, it strongly believes thatcalling for a ban on the comedy goes too far.

The reform organisation further notes that in the era of electronicmedia, monitoring and controlling religious depictions and imagery isa daunting, near impossible task.

"Hindus should set a spiritual example for others by combating socialills and discrimination," said Jaishree Gopal, Navya Shastrachairman.

The protests against the film, which opens June 20, have beenspearheaded by Rajan Zed, Hindu leader based in Reno, Nevada. Onwatching the film's trailer some weeks ago, he started accusing thefilm of lampooning Hinduism.

Troy, Michigan: Navya Shastra, the international Hindu reformorganization has voiced concern over the declining female-to male sexratio in India.It calls Indian feminist leaders to address the causes for thisdeplorable situation and to urge their government to take moreeffective action to curb and put an end to this sad and disgracefulsituation in the country.It is ironic that the epidemic continues to worsen, despite aburgeoning economy and rising literacy levels.

The bias against girls has existed for a long time across thesocioeconomic spectrum. Navya Shastra notes that even in thewealthiest areas of the nation's metros, abortions of the girl-childbased upon prenatal ultrasound technology continue to rise, thoughthere seems to be a growing awareness of the problem."Clearly a cultural preference for boys in Indian society is thedriving force behind the rise in female feticide," says Rahul Saxena,a Navya Shastra member from Bareilly, UP , "technology in this case issimply serving an ancient prejudice."Navya Shastra also called on the Hindu community and its organizationsto allow daughters to impart final rites at the funerals of theirparents. "One religious reason why boys are favored among Hindus isbecause of the anachronistic belief that only a son can formallyconduct this ceremony, so a girl is totally worthless in this regard,"said Dr. Jaishree Gopal, Navya Shastra Chairman.

(Compiled from a press release)

From India Abroad February 16, 2007, Pg M11Ghosts of the Past

Ramya Gopal visits an Indian village where time and tradition appearto have stood still

The urban scene of India has become a dichotomy between prosperity andpoverty, modernity and tradition. Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore arehungry for steel: tall skyscrapers, metro stations, and multistoriedshopping complexes. However, the morning warbles of the subjilawallas,the colorful temptation of street clothing, and the barber under thebanyan tree have refused to disappear into wistful oblivion.

This modern story of India is one with which we have all becomefamiliar; the miracle India praised on the covers of magazines andnewspapers. Yet in its villages, this dichotomy is replaced by a one-sided reliance on ancient tradition. When I visited a village nearChennai this past summer, I saw for the first time the archaic Indiadescribed in the stories of the Mahabharatha and the Ramayana.

As we drove away from Chennai, the roads dwindled from paved to dirtand then sand. The air of the coast was permeated by a pungent odor offish, but one that the people seemed to relish. The hot sand callousedmy feet but there was no litter for me to avoid as I had in thecities. Women in colorful saris and men in dhotis were squatted on theslimy floor sorting the fish. Repulsed, I strayed away from the stink,but it nostalgically reminded me that fishing villages initiated thestory of the Mahabharata. Satyavati, the embodiment of mothers in theepic, was the daughter of a fisherman, and it seemed as if thesefishermen were continuing the legacy. Interrupting my musing, my hostbeckoned me to a row of small motorboats shuddering against the coast.Boats were the only method of transportation across the lake and tothe village.

On the island, I walked, with seaweed in my toes, past small huts withthatched roofs. The main attraction in the island was an ornate templesurrounded by everyone in the village. A tent had been strung beyondwith seats lined in rows like a movie theatre. I stood awkwardly inthe sun, unsure of the village mores, until a few older girls beckonedto me. They had pulled out a chair and formed a towering circle aroundme. The girls had matching plaits and silver anklets.

A few were wearing simple cotton pavadais (petticoats), moretraditional to Tamil Nadu, although one was wearing a nightgown. Wegawked politely at each other; American suburban girl meets Indianvillage girls. "Why do you have your hair like that? In a bun?" theyasked me in Tamil. Taken aback, I didn't have an adequate response, soI steered the conversation away from me to them. I discovered that thegirls were between 18 and 20 but had only studied in school until 10thgrade. In between giggles, they added that one of them was engaged.The girls were at the ripe age for marriage and their parents werelooking for grooms for them. However, they could not marry out oftheir village because it was the only "untouchable" village in thearea. This social discrimination as a result of caste distinctionechoed again in their stories about the old temple.

One reason for my visit to Idamani--the place I was in-- was towitness the opening ceremony of a new temple. The old temple had beendestroyed by the tsunami two years ago. As the girls began to open upto me, I listened to their stories of backward practices associatedwith the temple. One example was the men's inability to wear a poonal,the sacred thread, because they were not "upper caste". Other familieswould not even visit their homes because they were untouchables. Womenwere not allowed in the temple when the men held their meetings. Theserestrictive traditions had been eradicated in the cities and otherparts of the world but persisted in this village.

The inauguration ceremony of the temple was announced by the ringingtones of the nadaswaram and the temple quickly became crowded. Somewomen looked out coyly from their thatched huts. Young girls were madeup in magenta colored lipstick, designs around their eyes, and tracesof dried turmeric on their faces. In the center of the temple was alarge (homam )fire and shahstri (priest) sang bhajans with thevillagers repeating after him, clapping. Colorful flowers, rice, andbutter for prasadam on aged yellow banana leaves completed theceremony.Interestingly, while members of the "higher" caste had rarelyvisited the old temple, the inauguration ceremony had been attended bymany outsiders. The new temple would, hopefully, become an emblem ofcaste reform.

Even as economic development brings modernity to India's villages,strong social divides still linger. In this village, for instance,water purification infrastructure has been put into place yet womenstill quit studying in favor of marriage. It was the most strikingdifference between the city and the village; caste lines more sharplydivided and a central part of daily life. It left me with the thoughtthat true prosperity was impossible until social advancement and asense of equality became firmly entrenched in our communities.

New Delhi (CNSNews.com) - An American tourist caused an uproar when hewandered into a Hindu temple strictly closed to non-Hindus, in anincident that highlighted the challenges India faces in presentingitself as an enlightened democracy.

Detained for several hours by local police in India's Orissa state,Paul Roediger, a 59-year-old engineer from New York, was laterreleased on condition he pay a token fine, after what authorities atthe Jagannath temple called an "act of desecration."

Roediger's inadvertent wandering into the shrine of Hindu deity Vishnutriggered calls from some Hindus for severe punishment, but localpolicemen managed to convince temple administrators and angryadherents that he had trespassed in error.

Unaware of rules banning entry of non-Hindus, the American, who isinterested in temple architecture, walked into the temple's inner"sanctum sanctorum."

Roediger expressed regret but also blamed temple authorities, notingthat no guard had prevented him from entering the area.

Police Inspector Alekh Pahi said Roediger and two Indian companionshad been released as "there is no provision in law to take any actionagainst for entering the temple."

Temple authorities afterwards "purified" the "defiled" premises bywashing with water and milk. Food worth nearly $5,000, meant fordistribution among Hindu devotees as part of religious ritual, wasdeemed "polluted" and destroyed.

The decision upset a U.S.-based Hindu reform organization, which saidit was appalled by the waste.

The Navya Shastra organization said it reflected "a medieval mindsetat a time and place where there are thousands of poor and hungrypeople."

"Low-caste" citizens and "untouchables" (dalits) are still deniedentry to various temples or forbidden to use water wells, incontravention of constitutional guarantees.

Dr. Rashmi Patni, director of the Gandhian Studies Centre at theUniversity of Rajasthan, argues that such customs go against thetenets of Mahatma Gandhi who he said stood for human dignity andequality irrespective of caste, sex, creed or color and fought fortemple entry for dalits.

"Like in every society, social discrimination in India is born out ofcenturies' old legacy," she said. "It is similar to the problem anddifferences among blacks and whites in the U.S. and cannot beeradicated merely by enactment of constitutional statutes."

Patni said, however, that the growing affluence of the middle class,increasing literacy levels and the spread of information technologywas making issues of caste, gender and religion of little importanceto younger Indians.

Sawai Singh, an activist espousing Gandhi's ideas, said successiveIndian governments have failed to curb the menace of religiousintolerance, because politicians prefer to pander to their respectiveconstituencies.

"If punishments for social discrimination and depravation were to besevere, many of these evils would get eradicated automatically," Singhargued.

Ironically, the Jagannath temple is immensely popular among pilgrims,because unlike some centers, it does not discriminate between higher-and lower-caste Hindus.

Nonetheless, the temple does not allow entry to non-Hindus orforeigners - with the exception of Western Hare Krishna devotees, whothrong to the temple each year in large numbers.

Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was once turned away fromthe main gates of the shrine, as she was deemed to be non-Hindu,having married outside of the religion.

Make media inquiries or request an interview about this article.

http://www.crosswalk.com/news/11531055/

An Unqualified Apology to Every UntouchableDecember 19, 2006Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta

http://desicritics.org/2006/12/19/103610.php

The untouchables of Hinduism are a wretched lot. For hundreds andthousands of years, this group of people have been forced to inhabitthe bottom end of the Hindu totem pole.

While it is not at the level of genocide, it is an institutionalisedsocial

discrimination over a very long period of time. When I read a pressrelease from a Hindu reformist group apologising to the Untouchablesfor the deep seated discrimination, it struck a chord in my mind and Iwanted to write about it, as well as share in this apology.

For example, only recently there was a big brouhaha when a temple inIndia refused entry to dalits (who are also Hindu) simply because theywere of a lower caste. In this day and age! I was so furious and whenI complained bitterly that none of the mainstream Hindu organisationsor leaders in India did anything, I was accused of patronising them.These so-called Hindu organisations are very quick off the mark whenabsolutely silly things go on, but when there is clear cut painfullyevident confirmation that there needs to be reform, they are nowhereto be found. This is absolutely ridiculous and a clear example ofintellectual incoherence at best and incompetence at worst. But Idigress.

Apologies are very strange and at the same time, very human. It isextremely powerful and at the same time, looked upon with deepcynicism. It is also extremely difficult to do so, while there isnothing like this to draw the teeth out of any angst ridden situation.Just ask me, I have to apologise regularly to my sister. But thisapology is one, which is valid on so many different levels and this isan apology to the untouchables of Hinduism.

The basics of this religiously mandated behaviour are well known and Iwill not spend too much time on going deeper into the intricacies ofthis. Other than saying that the idea of difference and discriminationwas institutionalised despite a huge amount of debate on what thisdifferentiation meant. On one hand, there were statements effectivelysaying that everybody is born the same, while on the other hand, thereare statements in religious books talking about how some are born fromthe head and some from the foot. Irrespective of what the religiousjustification is, one found that there are literally thousands ofgroups who consider themselves different from other groups. Thisgroupism extended to bans on intermarriage, taking meals together andeven extended to group dedicated watering holes and wells.

Quite a lot of Hindu reformers ranging from Swami Vivekananda, MahatmaGandhi, Guru Rabindranath Tagore, Dayananda Saraswati, etc. kept astrong pressure on changing this religious practise, but even whenIndia became independent, this was still present.

The then leader of the untouchables, Shri Bhimrao Ambedkar, abrilliant lawyer, even incorporated caste based reservations into theconstitution, to provide them with the leg up.

As it so happens, this is something which I disagree with, becausethis has institutionalised discrimination and is not leading anybodyanywhere towards the true equality in the eyes of the state andcitizens, but that's beside the point.

Discrimination was outlawed by the Indian constitution in 1936, butlittle has changed for the 300-400 million people who belonged to theUntouchable Castes of India. I am also conscious of the fact thatcalling it 'the caste system' is dangerously simplifying it, as theactual theological aspects behind the differentiation is much morecomplex.

What is also beside the point is that all other religions and cultureshave had the same groupism and differentiation and were trying tocreate a separate identity through religious or cultural factors.Whether we are talking about the Japanese way of looking at thedifference between the samurai and peasants, the difference betweenthe faithful and the dhimmi, the difference between Catholics andProtestants, the difference between white and black skin, thedifference between Christian and pagan, you name it, discriminationhas occurred all the time and everywhere. And yes, just because ithappened in other religious, regions and cultures, it just tells methat it is pretty much human. This is, however, neither an excuse nora reason to stop trying to rip out this disgusting practise.

But what good is an apology? We have to address the cynics in ourmidst as well, because I have seen this form of visceral reaction fromboth sides.

The side of the Hindus, who totally refuse to accept that thishappened and go off into theological arguments and ignore the reallife actions around discrimination. The other side are the Dalits, whowould be happy to tear down the entire country to satisfy their ratherstrange desire for revenge. Both extremely simplistic in the extremeand frankly not worth talking to or about, but then, that's whathappens to fanatics. Their feet are planted firmly in the air!

But this is not for the fanatics, they won't listen anyway, it is forthe vast majority of Hindus, people who have a social conscience, careabout their culture and are conscious of a vast historical injusticedone to a whole group of other people. And it is not a simple binaryequation, high class Brahmins discriminating against lower classdalits. It happens on every group intersection, so there is no pointin getting up on the high horse about just one group.

An apology is a very good means to bring things out in the open.Hiding behind a religious tract or pointing at other instances doesnot change the situation on the ground. Every Hindu has to be openabout this discrimination, and understand what this has done to us,our culture, history and reputation. No longer! This apology meansthat we understand and accept the fault. Not only that, but an apologyactually provides the impetus or the foundation to do something aboutit.

This is the other good thing about an apology for the cynics outthere. Once one has gone through the cathartic process of apologising,one can start to address this issue, if only by small measures. If afriend says something demeaning about a lower caste person, even araised eyebrow is a small but significant step in telling people thatthis form of behaviour is not appropriate.

One will definitely ask me the question if somebody might actuallyaccept the apology? I am afraid this is the wrong question. When TonyBlair apologised for the British role in Slavery, he did not do itbecause he was worried whether anybody might or might not accept it.He did it because this was the right thing to do. Despite the factthat I am personally not responsible for this reprehensible andhorrible historical fact, as a Hindu and as a human being, it is butright to apologise. As a Hindu, I hold responsibility to my religion,my nation, my society, my government, and indeed to my children aswell. An apology can, in a small way, lead towards making the world afairer place.

The Hindu Reformist group, Navya Shastra (http://www.shastras.org/),who actually made the public apology, also invited a whole host ofother Hindu luminaries to join in this effort. I am not sure how farthis went but it should be remembered that this caste baseddiscrimination is not simply religiously mandated, but also sociallymandated. Hence besides religious figures, cultural and social figuresneed to be brought into this as well. In many ways, an appeal by oneof the Bollywood actors may actually provide more push to changes inbehaviour, rather than very many Hindu religious leaders combined. Butstill, more luminaries joining in to complain, apologise and pushIndians to remove this distressing social condition is good.

So here it is, I fully endorse and join Navya Shastra, in apologisingto the other castes, for what I and my forefathers may have done andpromise that I will raise my voice against this disgusting practice,and hopefully help remove this by my words as well as my behaviour.

At the UN World Conference on Race (WCAR) held August 31-September 82001 in Durban, South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said:"...there aremany in our common world who suffer indignity and humiliation becausethey are not white ...These are a people who know what it means to bethe victim of rabid racism and racial discrimination. Nobody everchose to be a slave, to be colonised, to be racially oppressed. Theimpulses of the time caused these crimes to be committed by humanbeings against others."

And while there was quite a hullabaloo about whether 'casteism' isappropriate in this race conference, this is quibbling over details.Discrimination existed, it exists and it behoves us to address it. Maythis apology be a first start to a better implementation of religion!

All this to be taken with a grain of salt!

Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta works in the city of London in various capacitiesin the financial sector. He has worked and travelled widely around theworld. The articles in here relate to his current studies and arestrictly his opinion and do not reflect the position of his past orcurrent employer(s). If you do want to blame somebody, then blame mysister and editor, she is responsible for everything, the ideas, thewriting, the quotes, the drive, the israeli-palestinian crisis, globalwarming, the ozone layer depletion and the argentinian debt crisis.

Indian Groups Contest California Textbook Content

India-West, News Report, Viji Sundaram, Posted: Feb 16, 2006

HAYWARD, Calif. – Even as the California Board of Education (CBE) istrying to grapple with the contentious and loudly debated issue ofcorrections requested from Hindu groups in proposed textbooks forsixth-graders, another group is trying to make its voice heard overthe din.

Some dalits (widely thought of in India as an oppressed people) acrossthe U.S. are demanding that the term, dalit, used only in one of thenine proposed textbooks currently being reviewed by the CBE, not beelided (omitted), as the Hindu groups want, and that a photo of adalit cleaning a latrine be replaced with one of a dalit engaged in afaith practice.

They also say that it would serve the dalits' cause better if thetextbooks said that "untouchability is a living reality in India,"instead of simply going by the Hindu groups' suggestion that the bookssay that it is illegal to treat someone as an untouchable, VikramMasson, co-founder of Navya Shastra, a U.S.-based non-profitorganization that speaks out against caste-related issues, told India-West.

Acknowledging that "the Hinduism sections (in the textbooks) areextremely poor to begin with" and need to be corrected, Masson, who ishimself not a dalit and is a parent of a school-going child in NewJersey, observed: "It is curious (the Hindu groups) would want toelide the word, dalit. We believe the heritage of Hinduism is positiveenough, and there is no need to cover up any inadequacies."

"When there has been a history of discrimination against dalits, whyshould we paint a rosy picture in the textbooks?" asked Singh, whoteaches racism and sexism in the U.S. at William Patterson Universityin Wayne, N.J. Masson is married to a Christian priest.

But others argue that since the textbooks primarily deal with ancientIndia, a time when the word, dalit, was not even coined, to not removeit would be inappropriate.

For over a year now, two U.S.-based Hindu groups - the Hindu EducationFoundation and the Vedic Foundation - as well as scores of Hinduparents, have been pushing for corrections in the social studies andhistory courses in the sixth-grade textbooks, saying that the booksnot only do not accurately represent India's ancient culture andhistory, they sometimes denigrate it. Every six years, textbookpublishers offer the CBE drafts of textbooks they plan to bring outfor the board's acceptance. Public hearings form an integral part ofthe review process.

At those hearings last year, the Hindu groups asserted that the bookswere historically inaccurate in saying such things as Hinduism evolvedin India from the Aryans who invaded the country in 1500 B.C.; thatSanskrit was a dead language; that Hindi is written in Arabic script;that the Aryan rulers had created a caste system, under which thedalits were forced to perform menial tasks.

According to many scholars, prior to 600 A.D., the terms used in Indiato describe a so-called untouchable were chandala and shudra, and onlyabout one percent of the population fell under that category.

Citing from the book, "The Wonder That Was India," by the late ancienthistory scholar A.L. Basham, southern California resident and retiredUCLA ancient history professor Shiva Bajpai told India-West: "In fact,it was not blood that made a group untouchable, but conduct."

"So a Brahmin could be viewed as a chandala if he behaved badly,"Bajpai said.

Over the last several decades, the term dalit – a Marathi word thatmeans oppressed - has been gaining more currency in India, with therise of growing activism among the approximately 150 million people atthe bottom of the caste system, who accuse members of the upper casteof pervasive discrimination for centuries.

The late Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution,struggled to win dalits like himself equal rights. He renouncedHinduism in the process, saying the religion perpetuated the castesystem. Mahatma Gandhi worked toward uplifting the dalits' status,bestowing upon them the term, Harijan, which means "children of God."However, many dalits and activists do not like to be called that."They say if you are born from God, your parentage is questionable,"said Masson.

Even the group of historians and academics headed by HarvardUniversity Sanskrit professor Michael Witzel, who is opposing many ofthe corrections the Hindu groups have suggested, accusing them ofattempting to whitewash Indian history, has accepted the Hindu groups'suggestion to delete negative references to untouchability, said SantaRosa, Calif., resident Vishal Agarwal, who described himself as an"independent scholar."

MICHIGAN: A US-based Hindu organisation has accused the Vishwa HinduParishad (VHP) of "casteist practices" at a mass conversion campaignin Etah in Uttar Pradesh last month.

Navya Shastra, the organisation which boasts of scholars and priests"dedicated to fostering the spiritual equality of all Hindus" amongits followers, said the VHP, which claimed to have converted 5,000Christians to Hinduism at Etah, had classified them as Dalits in theirnew religion.

"While we applaud all efforts to spread the Hindu religion throughpeaceful and legitimate means, we are utterly baffled that the VHPwould insist that the new converts be labelled as untouchables," itsaid in a statement here.

The statement urged all Hindu organisations involved in proselytisingactivities to do away with attaching cast labels to new converts."Surely all modern Hindu reformers agree that there is no spiritualmerit attached to any caste affiliation," the statement added.

Organisations like the VHP, which envisions a caste-free society,should follow their own advice, it maintained.

Resize - Minus Resize - Plus As the world attempts to tackle thetragedy in South Asia, the focus for the vast majority of South Asianshas been on relief. But the tsunami has also magnified already-existing tensions between Hindus, Christians and others in thedevastated region. In India--a country often seen as a spiritualbattleground, where religions fight over the souls of the poor anddispossessed--some conservative Hindus have used the tsunami tocriticize both a Hindu leader's arrest and the presence of Christianmissionaries in India. Meanwhile, evangelical Christian groups mayproselytize as they help tsunami victims.

Last week, a column on the widely-read Indian news site Rediff.comsuggested that the tsunami was a sign of retribution againstChristians, whose activities are seen as betraying India's essentiallyHindu character. (Full disclosure: I work for a publication owned byRediff.com, and my articles occasionally appear on Rediff.) ColumnistRajeev Srinivasan pointed to several religion-related factors he seesas pertinent. Referring to the earthquake as the "Christmas quake," heimplied that the timing wasn't mere coincidence. He also noted thatthe tsunami hit a church at Velankanni, one of the most significantChristian pilgrimage points in South India, resulting in the death of50 people. Finally, he connected the tragedy to what many see as therecent mistreatment of a revered Hindu leader.

In November, a holy man known formally as Shankaracharya JayendraSaraswathi wasarrested in connection with the murder of a former official of hisreligious order. Hindus around the world decried the arrest, evenorganizing mass email petitions maintaining that the entire affair waspolitically motivated and related to a longstanding fight with thecurrent head of the state government of Tamil Nadu, where the mosttsunami-related deaths later occurred. Before long, theShankaracharya's sympathizers had solidified their opinion that anti-Hindu forces were to blame, with some going so far as to point fingersat the Vatican.

For Srinivasan, the Shankaracharya's arrest seemed the most plausibleexplanation for the subsequent disaster. "The devastation by thetsunami in Tamil Nadu, could it be a caveat from Up There about theatrocities being visited on the [Shankaracharya]?" he asked. "Aboutadharma"--evil--"gaining ground?" In summarizing, he wrote, "It issaid that the very elements can be affected by the mystical powers ofsages who have acquired superhuman powers through meditation andsadhana. I think we should all tread carefully, for now we aretreading on things we do not know."

Srinivasan's comments may seem like isolated rants--and even many ofhis longtime readers rejected them--but other groups have echoed hisfeelings. The Kanchi Kamakoti Seva Foundation, which defends theShankaracharya, recently sent an email to its supporters linking thetsunami to the holy man's arrest. The email says "God has given astrong signal with this disaster when the injustice to Dharmicfollowers have crossed the tolerance limit." It instructs readers topray that the tsunami will be "an eye-opener for the Tamil NaduAdministration and for the media to stop abusing their powers andbring out false charges against H.H. [His Holiness]."

Most Hindus find the "act of God" tsunami theories irrelevant, if notoffensive. "Such a controversy, if at all there is one, is a productof some small minds," said Gaurang Vaishnav of the Vishwa HinduParishad of America, one of many Hindu organizations in the UnitedStates that has rallied to aid the victims.

"Hindus do not believe in a vindictive God. There are always actionsand reactions in accordance with the theory of karma. But to attributea wholesale destruction and death of thousands of innocent people to asingle act of a state government is ridiculous, insensitive andinsulting to human compassion that crosses the boundaries of religionat times of natural disasters."

Another Hindu group, the reformist

Navya Shastra

, issued a press release condemning Hindu organizations that havebought into the act-of-God view, comparing their remarks to those ofChristian leaders like Jerry Falwell. While acknowledging, likeVaishnav, that karma could have played a role in the deaths, thegroup, made of Hindu scholars, practitioners and priests outsideIndia, suggested that it was more important to focus on helpingsurvivors than trying to explain why the disaster happened.

Such act-of-God charges also tap into larger Hindu resentment over thenotion that traditional Hindu culture is giving way to forces such asWestern materialism or other faiths. Opposition to Christianmissionary work and the conversion of Dalits, or low-caste Hindus, isnot confined to Hindu nationalists. Many people react negatively tothe idea that some of India's tribal peoples may be exposed to theBible even as they are taught how to read, or may take on a Christianname. The state of Tamil Nadu has special significance for manyHindus. It was there that a controversial Anti-Conversion Bill waspassed in 2002, meant to prevent poor Hindus from being forciblyconverted to Christianity, especially via financial inducements.Christian leaders have denied offering such inducements.

But some mission groups see tsunami relief efforts as an opportunityto spread the gospel in South Asia. In an

article on the evangelical website Crosswalk.com

, Dr. Ajith Fernando of Youth for Christ was quoted as saying, "Wehave prayed and wept for our nation for many years. The most urgent ofmy prayers has always been that my people would turn to Jesus. I praythat this terrible, terrible tragedy might be used by God to breakthrough into the lives of many of our people."

Another evangelist, Gospel for Asia's K.P. Yohannan, said, "In timeslike these, we know that God opens the hearts of those who suffer, andwe pray that as our workers demonstrate God's love to them, many ofthem will come to know for the first time that real security comesonly through Him."

The statements were immediately distributed to watchful Hindus throughthe e-mail news digest Hindu Press International ("Christians SeeConversion Opportunities in Disaster Relief"), a service from thepublishers of the U.S. magazine Hinduism Today.

For some Hindus, the Christian call to evangelize was expected, andserved to favorably contrast Hinduism's non-proselytization with whatthey consider the insidious nature of certain Christian groups. "Youwill not find an RSS or VHP volunteer converting a non-Hindu to HinduDharma after helping him in his time of need," said Gaurang Vaishnav."This is the true meaning of seva"--service in the spirit ofsacrifice--"to a Hindu."

However, these same Hindu aid groups are themselves under scrutiny. Anemail distributed by the leftist group

Campaign to Stop Funding Hate

told Indians interested in donating to disaster victims to avoid Hindugroups such as the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS), Seva Internationaland the VHP of America. These organizations, says CSFH, have a historyof using grassroots efforts to advance a militant Hindu politicalagenda. According to Kaushik Ghosh, an anthropologist at theUniversity of Texas, they may create organizational bases, increasemembership, establish political legitimacy or fundraise.

"During [2001's] Gujarat earthquake, the amount of money that flewinto these organizations was unbelievable," said Ghosh. "Theaccounting of such money is relatively murky ...NGOs and relief-development work can become the source of money for a whole range of'behind-the-camera' projects." For its part, the VHPA states, "fundsfor relief work are distributed without consideration of province,race or religion."

Despite the religious struggles in the press and among advocacygroups, the interfaith situation appears to be more positive on theground, where aid groups and neighbors are working together to helpsurvivors. One Indian blogger, Amit Varma, reported a growingfriendship between local people of different faiths responding to thedevastation. While spending time in the village of Parangipettai, inTamil Nadu, Varma wrote, "A deep bond had been formed between thevillagers, who were all Hindus, and these Muslim men who rushed tohelp their neighbours because they believed that to be the way oftheir religion. ...Faith, that can be so divisive in times of peace,can also bring communities together in times of strife."

NEW YORK: A US-based organisation has criticised India's leading Hinduseer, Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, for having been partof a ceremony where a Rs.20 million ($425,000) diamond-studded crownwas placed on a deity, saying the money could have been spent onsocial service instead.

The Navya Shastra, a Hindu organisation, said the seer was part of theOct 2 "kumbhabhishekam" ceremony in Andhra Pradesh state's Tirupatitemple where the deity, Lord Venkateswara, was adorned with the crown.

The crown, encrusted with two marble sized emeralds and rare Burmeserubies besides diamonds, has been donated by the Goenka businessfamily of Kolkata, India.

Navya Shastra research director Gautham Rao, said money for the crownhad come through donations and it could have been put to better use."Clearly at this time in Indian history, when the majority of Indiancitizens continue to live at or near poverty levels, we felt the moneyshould have been spent on social service," he said.

"We had hoped the Acharya would use his considerable influence todirect the funds for programmes for the betterment of strugglingHindus and members of the lower castes, many of whom continue to liveon the peripheries of Hindu society," he added.

When Tukaram, a 19-year-old Dalit fresh from his exams, prayed at aHanuman temple in Andhra Pradesh earlier this month, he probably neveranticipated the outrage it would cause.

Upper caste villagers issued an injunction against his entirecommunity, before scrubbing down the entire temple with cow dung andurine in a symbolic act of purification.

Ths situation might have remained another footnote to the ongoingstory of India's caste divisions, but for the efforts of a group ofreformist NRIs. The group, Navya Shastra, publicly condemned theactions of the upper caste villagers and announced a Rs 10,000 (about$200) scholarship for Tukaram.

This is just the latest in a series of actions the group has taken toaddress what it feels are inequities in the religion. Unlike seculargroups that rail against caste and gender discrimination, however,Navya Shastra comprises devout, temple-going Hindus.

These include a leading priest from Houston and a number of academics,as well as converts to the religion. Among the advisers is ArunGandhi, founder of the MK Gandhi Center for Nonviolence, and O PGupta, India's ambassador to Finland.

According to Jaishree Gopal, the molecular biologist in Michigan whofounded Navya Shastra with New Jersey resident Vikram Masson, thegroup formed after discussions on an online Hindu bulletin board twoyears ago.

"There are lots of apologists writing on the Net these days." saidGopal. "We saw some articles posted that there is no castediscrimination in Hinduism (but we know) that Dalits are discriminatedagainst."

Its this inequality, the group contends on its website, which has leadto an "epochal tide of conversions to religions thats supposedlypreach egalitarian values. There is compelling evidence that thenumber of actual conversions in India is vastly understated by bothmissionary organizations and the government."

Aside from access to temples for members of all castes, the grouppromotes the right for anyone--man or woman--to receive the sacredthread and/or become a priest.

While the Indian government has encouraged such reforms to an extent,the organization insists that Hindus themselves should take up thecause while avoiding factionalism. At the same time, the group hasbeen critical of Dalits for highlighting caste discrimination withoutactively working with Hindu leaders to resolve the problem.

According to Gopal, it is not a coincidence that Navya Shastra isbased outside of India.

"As NRIs, we become more aware of our religious identity when you areyoung, as opposed to India, where it just permeates the atmoshere",she said. "We are used to answering questions about caste over here.And we can't always justify the discriminatory aspects."

Another member, Sri Rajarathina Bhattar, agreed with this assessmentand cited the grip of "superstitous beliefs" on many Hindus in India.

The priest emeritus at Houston's Sri Meenakshi Temple, Bhattar hasbeen conducting a letter writing campaign to newspapers and orthodoxleaders in India, stressing the need for reform.

So far, he said, there continue to be a number of priests who insiston maintaining the status quo.

"But priests who are well educated seem to agree with me." he said."The main reason most of them disagree is due to the fear that theymay lose certain rights as a priest."

TROY (MICHIGAN): A Hindu organisation in the US has condemned reporteddiscrimination against a Dalit student who was allegedly victimisedfor offering prayers in a Hindu temple in India's Andhra Pradeshstate.

The boy scored a first class in his intermediate examinations andvisited the village temple of Hanuman to make the traditional coconutoffering in Allapur, Andhra Pradesh. When members of the upper castecommunity discovered this they condemned the boy and extorted Rs.500fine from his apologetic father, Tulsiram.

They also purified the temple by washing it with cow urine and dung soas to efface the imprints of an "untouchable," according to VikramMasson, co-chairman of the organisation.

Such community-based discrimination continues in India despite aconstitutional ban and strict legal safeguards against communitydiscrimination. "Tukaram must know that others in the Hindu worldstrongly condemn such actions," said Jaishree Gopal, the other co-chairman of the organisation.

"Navya Shastra will award Tukaram a scholarship to help his familywith Tukaram's educational costs and sincerely hopes that the Indiangovernment and religious leaders will pay more attention to theapartheid in our midst," said Gopal.

http://shastras.org/Newindpress.com

End caste discrimination, Hindu leaders urged

New York, Nov 28 (IANS) A global Hindu group has urged leaders of thefaith to end caste discrimination in their institutions. The group,Navya Shastra, also said in a press note that the Vedic chantingtradition should be opened to all instead of being restricted to uppercaste Brahmins. Jaishree Gopal, Navya Shastra co-chairperson, said:"The only way to save the Vedic chanting tradition is to initiatesincere members of all castes, ...

…resulting in a dwindling supply of Vedic experts. The organisation islobbying Hindu leaders to implement caste blind initiation policies atan Acharya Sabha meet to be held in Chennai from Saturday.

… "Here we have a historic opportunity to declare to the world thatHinduism will reform itself for ever of caste discrimination," saidVikram Masson, Navya Shastra co-chairman.

"Hinduism, which is thousands of years old, has never had asignificant reformist movement," said Arun Gandhi, Navya Shastraadviser and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. "I believe the new millenniumnow offers Hinduism an opportunity to change its ancient ...

"A witty documentary satire.... Mehta embraces an enormous variety oflife and death. Her style is light without being flip; her skepticismnever descends to cynicism. [Karma Cola is] a miracle of rationalismand taste."

-- Time

Sometime in the 1960s, the West adopted India as its newest spiritualresort. The next anyone knew, the Beatles were squatting at the feetof the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Expatriate hippies were turning onentire villages to the pleasures of group sex and I.V. drug use. AndIndians who were accustomed to earning enlightenment the old-fashionedway were finding that the visitors wanted their Nirvana now -- andthat plenty of native gurus were willing to deliver it.

No one has observed the West's invasion of India more astutely thanGita Mehta. In Karma Cola the acclaimed novelist trains an unblinkingjournalistic eye on jaded sadhus and beatific acid burnouts, theBhagwan and Allen Ginsberg, guilt-tripping English girls and a guruwho teaches gullible tourists how to view their previous incarnations.Brilliantly irreverent, hilarious, sobering, and wise, Mehta's book isthe definitive epitaph for the era of spiritual tourism and all itscasualties -- both Eastern and Western.

"Evelyn Waugh would have rejoiced."

-- The New York Times Book ReviewKurzbeschreibung

Beginning in the late '60s, hundreds of thousands of Westernersdescended upon India, disciples of a cultural revolution thatproclaimed that the magic and mystery missing from their lives was tobe found in the East. An Indian writer who has also lived in Englandand the United States, Gita Mehta was ideally placed to observe thespectacle of European and American "pilgrims" interacting with theirhosts. When she finally recorded her razor sharp observations in KarmaCola, the book became an instant classic for describing, in mercilessdetail, what happens when the traditions of an ancient and longlivedsociety are turned into commodities and sold to those who don'tunderstand them.

In the dazzling prose that has become her trademark, Mehta skewers theentire Spectrum of seekers: The Beatles, homeless students, Hollywoodrich kids in detox, British guilt-trippers, and more. In doing so, shealso reveals the devastating byproducts that the Westerners brought tothe villages of rural lndia -- high anxiety and drug addiction amongthem.

Brilliantly irreverent, Karma Cola displays Gita Mehta's gift forweaving old and new, common and bizarre, history and current eventsinto a seamless and colorful narrative that is at once witty,shocking, and poignant.Alle Produktbeschreibungen

Ms. Mehta is undoubtedly the best Indian author alive!I dothink the person who wrote the two sentence review probably doesnot know the meaning of 'trash'. 'Trash' is the heaps and heaps ofbooks that get published every year in the US and somehow make it tothe NY Times best seller list just beacuse Oprah thinks it is a goodbook or because it can be made into a tv...

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Useful & entertainingHumorous description of overseas visitors looking to India forspiritual enlightenment twenty years ago. I read this while visitingPune, India, location of Bhagavan Shri Rajnish's ashram, which made iteven more appropriate. Very entertaining & perceptive.

The book is not about India--it is about Western misperception ofIndia.

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)While Ms. Metha is an extremely talented writer I find it distractingto have to wade through her obvious attempts to describe every minutedetail to the reader. It gets to be too much. This is a nice book thatoffers (too much) description and a very one sided view of India.She's writing for an American audience and it's as though she wantsthem to laugh at the customs and norms in India. This is not myfavorite book on india or even by the author. This is a middle of theroad book as far as I'm concerned. I don't hate it, but then again Idon't love it either.

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)This book mocks europeans and americans who have earnestly gone toIndia to seek out "enlightenment" and an element of spirituality thatthey think is lacking in their home cultures. Gita Mehta employs allsorts of cliches and negative stereotypes to depict this class of"foreigner" in India. This is not a very challenging literary task.Her language is as slick and taught as advertising text. Sometimesclever, but more often simply rank and mean, Mehta indulges in tritepseudo subaltern "slamming" of hippies and spiritual seekers.

I wonder what Mehta's reaction would be if an American author startedpenning stories of the immature, body-stenched, fashion impairedIndian immigrants who flock to America to shop in outlet malls andstuff their cheap luggage full of cheaper nick-nacks for the glassbureaus back in Delhi and Dehra Dun...

Everyone is looking for something: Westerners look for somethingspiritual in India / Indians look for something material in the West.

And you are looking for my opinion on this book: dont waste your timewith this one -- go buy a Rushdie novel you don't already have.

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)Ms. Mehta is undoubtedly the best Indian author alive!I dothink the person who wrote the two sentence review probably doesnot know the meaning of 'trash'. 'Trash' is the heaps and heaps ofbooks that get published every year in the US and somehow make it tothe NY Times best seller list just beacuse Oprah thinks it is a goodbook or because it can be made into a tv movie.

This book is a classic. Her use of the language is extra-ordinary. Shetouches on the most 'Indian' of values with a great sense of humor andalmost trivialises them. She makes you really think about issues thatmatter and drove(still drive) thousands of Westerners to India. Shehas also done a great job of contrasting the Eastern and Western viewof life, death and everything spiritual.

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)Humorous description of overseas visitors looking to India forspiritual enlightenment twenty years ago. I read this while visitingPune, India, location of Bhagavan Shri Rajnish's ashram, which made iteven more appropriate. Very entertaining & perceptive.The book is not about India--it is about Western misperception ofIndia.

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)This book is a must-read for those travelers bound for India,especially for those seeking enlightenment. I lived in Varanasi for ayear, and I met many travelers who believed that India was some sortof textbook Hindu holy land. These people lived in their ideas,creating a shield around them that kept real India out. Karma Colahelps show that India isn't a book-ideal made up of gurus and yogisperforming divine-inspired miracles on every street corner. It showsthat India, like any other country, is made up of people: helpfulpeople and crooks, prude people and perverts. If you go to India,don't go there to experience some sort of religious miracle. Go thereto see real India and meet real Indians, and read this book before yougo!

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)Written so as to remind each of us that there's a sucker (or seeker)born every minute, Mehta's book shows us how easy it is to foolgullible Westerners looking for enlightenment, and that there's a bigdifference between open-hearted curiosity and gullibility. Westernerscreated a market for gurus, and India filled it. But somewhere amongthe amusing anecdotes that Mehta relates in a clucking tongue there'sa tale that's really rather sad. On the whole, I enjoyed the book andfound it witty and amusing, but thought it was perhaps a littlesatisfied at its own superiority. For anybody thinking about going toIndia to "find themselves," it would be a good primer.

In addition to what I've already written, let me also state that thebook is also a criticism of Indians who capitalize on westerners' needfor spiritual fulfillment. On a personal note about the Chapter inwhich the illegal route from Pakistan to India is discovered and theforeigners coming through that route by taking advantage of thehospitality of the villagers, this is not uncommon even today. I'vehad several people stay at my house who basically used me as a cheapplace to stay and without even thanking me for cooking for them orproviding them with a roof over their heads. The ability to takeunashamedly persists. Hospitality is one of the greatest things aboutIndian/South Asian culture, but as Mehta demonstrates in the chapter,it also exposes Indians to a great deal of abuse as anyone who's hadan ungracious house guest can testify.

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola: Marketing the Mystic East(Vintage International) (Taschenbuch)Karma Cola is definitely required reading for any westerner interestedin things Indian or perhaps contemplating hitting the Dharma trail.Its recognition that misunderstanding goes both ways (eg. theanecdotes about gurus treatment of their Western students) is a goodreality check for those of us whose spiritual search has taken usthere. Ms Mehta gently reminds us that trying to absorb 5000 years ofexperience and living may take a little more than a few weeks of squatloos, and some Om Mani Padme Hums.

This is the first time I've ever read a book about the move of Easternthought into the West which was not written by a Westerner. In someways sobering, it is also witty and at times poignant.

By the way, an earlier reviewer lambasted the author for attributingthe wrong language to clerks from Kerala. That mistake has been fixedin the edition I have (Minerva 1997 paperback).

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)Pardon me, but the author's ignorance is showing. The book has verylittle to do with reality and panders to every fear and stereotype inthe mind of an Western audience. Here is an instance of the author'signorance, a quote from Chapter VI titled Behind the Urine Curtain,Section 3 (pg 84 in the Vintage paper back edition)-she is talkingabout the different people who use the local trains in Mumbai- "Thereto the left is a clutch of stiletto-heeled and skirted Goansecretaries, exchanging office gossip in Portuguese. Close behind themare the Kerala clerks in white bush shirts and gray trousers,conversing in (emphasis mine)*KANNADA*". Now anyone with an iota ofknowledge about India and its languages will know that the people ofKerala speak Malayalam and not Kannada which is the language of theneighboring Karnataka. Malayalam and Kannada are not obscure tonguesbut are each spoken by atleast a few million people. Someone whodoesnt even know this should NOT set out writing a book about India.Makes one wonder at the autheticity of the other anecdotes in thebook. Throwing in some high sounding philosophical jargon does notmake a book intellectual either (Chapter XIII- Om is Where the Heartis). In all a very pathetic attempt to make a quick buck out of the"mystic" of the East. She seems to be the one living up to her book'stitle- Karma Cola- Marketing the Mystic East.

A look at the consequences of India's "spiritual draw"., 1. Dezember1997Von Ein Kunde

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)An interesting look at what draws "spiritually starved" westerners toIndia and the consequential fallout. The author assumes a lot from thereader, particularly a working knowledge of spoken French and arudimentary understanding of Hindu mythology. I'm lacking on bothaccounts so a lot of the book went over my head. One particularpassage that sounds to me like it's important but I didn't fullyappreciate, was the one where she is talking about the meaning ofKarma and its perverted meaning by westerners. She relates the story,from the Bhagavad Gita, of Arjuna asking Krishna why he needs to go towar when understanding is superior to action in this case. Krishnaanswers that one is bound by action and that only by acting can one befree of the bondage of action. "That is exactly Karma" says theauthor. Now, here is where I have a problem, probably because of mylimited understanding of Hinduism. *I* thought that Karma had to dowith the totallity of ones actions and is *the* factor determiningyour next level of reincarnation. What the author seems to be implyingis that Karma is, instead, the bondage of action, i.e. fate. That is,karma is the thing which predefines our actions rather than themeasure of our actions. I am confused ..... On the other hand, hervery pragmatic telling of the western approach to "instant nirvana"and the "distressed westerner" abdicating to the nearest Guru isactually quite refreshing and devoid of the mythical. :-) However,notquite so overtly there is the implication that the invasion ofconfused westerners has had a very destructive impact of the lives ofordinary Indians. When relating the story of the westerners whofigured out a illegal route into India from Pakistan by takingadvantage of the hospitality of Indians, the protaganist of the storyis said to have said "One cannot make an omelet without breaking someeggs". The author continues by saying, "and from where I stand theground is covered with broken egg shells". This I found quite sad ....the narcissistic westerners completely lacking in self-restraint andenough appreciation to understand that the path of "enlightenment"requires endurance and cannot be delivered at will. Mind you that'swhat Christianity preaches; just give your faith to god and you willbe saved. Where is the prerequisite toil and self-sacrifice?

An excellent book on the "other" perspective., 1. Dezember 1997Von Ein Kunde

This is an excellent book for those who want to know what "sensible"South Asians think about the appropriation and manipulation of theirculture. I'm sure that it would seem rather acerbic to those whocontrol the discourse on culture and identity but every once in awhile a book comes along and gives voice to the perspective of the"other." Those of us who have seen their karma, their food, theirnoserings, their clothes and their cultural, religious and nationalsymbols reinvented, recycled and resignified will appreciate this bookas an attempt to point out the folly of such doings. For westerners,this is like looking in a mirror that does not lie.

A rather cranky view of westerners in India., 16. August 1997Von ***@alaska.net (Girdwood, Alaska) -

Rezension übernommen von: Karma Cola (Taschenbuch)The author has some fun describing the follies and adventures ofwesterners in India, but falls into the "more Hindu than thou" mode abit. An interesting read.

Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption areonly a few of the ingredients in Shantaram, a massive, over-the-top,mostly autobiographical novel. Shantaram is the name given Mr.Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means "man of God'speace," which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do notknow is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from anAustralian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence. Heserved two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for astring of armed robberies peformed to support his heroin addiction,which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of hisdaughter. All of that is enough for several lifetimes, but for GregRoberts, that's only the beginning.

He arrives in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers,an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meetsPrabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. Hetakes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his homevillage, where they end up living for six months. When they return toBombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000people and Linbaba becomes the resident "doctor." With a prisonknowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doingtrades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded asheaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, ratbites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman, with whom he falls in love. Theirs is a complicatedrelationship, and Karla’s connections are murky from the outset.

Roberts is not reluctant to wax poetic; in fact, some of his prose isdownright embarrassing. Throughought the novel, however, all 944 pagesof it, every single sentence rings true. He is a tough guy with atender heart, one capable of what is judged criminal behavior, but abasically decent, intelligent man who would never intentionally hurtanyone, especially anyone he knew. He is a magnet for trouble, asoldier of fortune, a picaresque hero: the rascal who lives by hiswits in a corrupt society. His story is irresistible. Stay tuned forthe prequel and the sequel. --Valerie Ryan -- Dieser Text bezieht sichauf eine andere Ausgabe: Gebundene Ausgabe .

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this massive, thrillingly undomesticated potboiler, ayoung Australian man bearing a false New Zealand passport that giveshis name as "Lindsay" flies to Bombay some time in the early '80s. Onhis first day there, Lindsay meets the two people who will largelyinfluence his fate in the city. One is a young tour guide, Prabaker,whose gifts include a large smile and an unstoppably joyful heart.Through Prabaker, Lindsay learns Marathi (a language not often spokenby gora, or foreigners), gets to know village India and settles, for atime, in a vast shantytown, operating an illicit free clinic. Thesecond person he meets is Karla, a beautiful Swiss-American woman withsea-green eyes and a circle of expatriate friends. Lin's love for Karla—and her mysterious inability to love in return—gives the book itscentral tension. "Linbaba's" life in the slum abruptly ends when he isarrested without charge and thrown into the hell of Arthur RoadPrison. Upon his release, he moves from the slum and begins launderingmoney and forging passports for one of the heads of the Bombay mafia,guru/sage Abdel Khader Khan. Eventually, he follows Khader as animprobable guerrilla in the war against the Russians in Afghanistan.There he learns about Karla's connection to Khader and discovers whoset him up for arrest. Roberts, who wrote the first drafts of thenovel in prison, has poured everything he knows into this book and itshows. It has a heartfelt, cinemascope feel. If there are occasionalpassages that would make the very angels of purple prose weep, thereare also images, plots, characters, philosophical dialogues andmysteries that more than compensate for the novel's flaws. Asensational read, it might well reproduce its bestselling success inAustralia here.

A thousand pages is like a thousand pounds--it sounds like too much todeal with. Nevertheless, Roberts' very long novel sails along at anamazingly fast clip. Readers in the author's native Australiaapparently finished every page of it, for they handed it considerablepraise. Now U.S. readers can enjoy this rich saga based on Roberts'own life: escape from a prison in Australia and a subsequent flight toBombay, which is exactly what happens to Lindsay, the main characterin the novel; once in Bombay, he joins the city's underground. Robertsgraphically, even beautifully, evokes that milieu--he is as effectiveat imparting impressions as any good travel writer--in this complexbut cohesive story about freedom and the lack of it, about survival,spiritual meaning, love, and sex; in other words, about life in whathas to be one of the most fascinating cities in the world. One's firstimpression of this novel is that it is simply a good story, but onesoon comes to realize that Roberts is also a gifted creator ofcharacters--not only Lindsay but also Prabaker, who becomes Lindsay'sguide, caretaker, and entree into various elements of Bombay society.Soon, too, one becomes aware and appreciative of Roberts' felicitouswriting style. In all, despite the novel's length, it is difficult notto be ensnared by it. And, be forewarned, it will be popular. BradHooper

"Shantaram is a novel of the first order, a work of extraordinary art,a thing of exceptional beauty. If someone asked me what the book wasabout, I would have to say everything, every thing in the world.Gregory David Roberts does for Bombay what Lawrence Durrell did forAlexandria, what Melville did for the South Seas, and what Thoreau didfor Walden Pond: He makes it an eternal player in the literature ofthe world."

- Pat Conroy

"Shantaram has provided me with the richest reading experience to dateand I don't expect anybody to unseat its all-round performance for along time. It is seductive, powerful, complex, and blessed with aperfect voice. Like a voodoo ghost snatcher, Gregory David Roberts hascaptured the spirits of the likes of Henri Charrière, Rohinton Mistry,Tom Wolfe, and Mario Vargas Llosa, fused them with his own uniquemagic, and built the most gripping monument in print. The land of thegod Ganesh has unchained the elephant, and with the monster runningamok, I tremble for the brave soul dreaming of writing a novel aboutIndia. Gregory David Roberts is a suitable giant, a dazzling guru, anda genius in full."

- Moses Isegawa, author of Abyssinian Chronicles and Snakepit

"Shantaram is, quite simply, the 1001 Arabian Nights of the newcentury. Anyone who loves to read has been looking for this book alltheir reading life. Anyone who walks away from Shantaram untouched iseither heartless or dead or both. I haven't had such a wonderful timein years."

- Jonathan Carroll, author of White Apples

"Shantaram is dazzling. More importantly, it offers a lesson...thatthose we incarcerate are human beings. They deserve to be treated withdignity. Some of them, after all, may be exceptional. Some may evenpossess genius."

- Ayelet Waldman, author of Crossing the Park

“Utterly unique, absolutely audacious, and wonderfully wild, Shantaramis sure to catch even the most fantastic of imaginations off guard.”

---Elle

“Shantaram had me hooked from the first sentence. [It] is thrilling,touching, frightening...a glorious wallow of a novel.”

---Detroit Free Press

“[A] sprawling, intelligent novel…full of vibrant characters…theexuberance of his prose is refreshing…Roberts brings us throughBombay’s slums and opium houses, its prostitution dens and ex-patbars, saying, You come now. And we follow.”

“This reviewer is amazed that Roberts is here to write anything.Swallowed up by the abyss, somehow he crawled out intact….His love forother people was his salvation…Powerful books can change our lives.The potency of Shantaram is the joy of forgiveness. First we mustregret, then forgive. Forgiveness is a beacon in the blackness.”

“Shantaram is a true epic. It is a huge, messy, over-the-topirresistible shaggy-dog story.”--The Seattle Times

Kurzbeschreibung

A stunning debut novel based on the author's dramatic andextraordinary true story. After escaping from a maximum-securityprison, Roberts hid in Bombay, establishing a medical clinic, workingin Bollywood and joining the mafia. A gripping and superbly writtenadventure story which will receive review and feature coverage. "Amasterpiece...sure to be a bestseller around the world" "The Age" --Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbareAusgabe dieses Titels.

Über den Autor

Gregory David Roberts was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced tonineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escapedand spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay---where he established afree medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter,smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombaymafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established asuccessful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is a now full-time writer and lives in Bombay.

I grew up in Bombay in the fifties and early sixties, and have notvisited the city for the past odd 20 years. This amazing book hasbasically summed up life in one of the most fascinating cities in theworld. Besides the adventure, which is unique in itself, the authorhas managed a description of the city and its unbelievable vibrantatmosphere and street life to pass...Vollständige Rezension lesen ›

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram (Gebundene Ausgabe)I grew up in Bombay in the fifties and early sixties, and have notvisited the city for the past odd 20 years. This amazing book hasbasically summed up life in one of the most fascinating cities in theworld. Besides the adventure, which is unique in itself, the authorhas managed a description of the city and its unbelievable vibrantatmosphere and street life to pass like a film in front of ones eyes.It is the best book I have ever read about the city.

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)This book is simply amazing.It is a classic adventure book first of all, filled with deeprealizations about life, love and death. It is beautifully crafted,and Gregory Roberts writing style is gripping, colorful and profoundlysimple (in the best way). It always displays an honesty andauthenticity even in the most outragous moments of this tale - andthere are many of those. Shantaram is everything a reader could everwant from a book - it is poetic, moving, philosophical and extremelyalive. You'll be very sorry when you get to the last of the 900+pages.

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram (Gebundene Ausgabe)Mr Roberts's voluminous novel tells the story of one narrator whoescaped from prison in Australia and travelled to Bombay on a falseNew Zealand passport. He doesn't devote much time talking about hiscriminal activities in his home country apart from stating that heused to rob banks and deal in drugs and then chose to abandon his wifeand children for the life of a fugitive. Upon his arrival in theIndian capital, he met Prabaker Kharre, a loveable character whoshowed him round the city, particularly the areas rarely visited bymainstream tourists. At Leopold's, a bar where illegal business isconducted by many Indians and a few foreigners, the narrator wasintroduced to Karla Saaranen, a beautiful woman who is often theobject of his thoughts throughout the novel due to the difficulty shehas in feeling love for anyone.

As he settled down in Bombay, he learned to speak Marathi and Hindiand during the adventurous years he spent in the city he becameacquainted with a whole array of characters and he became to be knownas Lin, Linbaba or Shantaram. The most impressive passages in thenovel are the narrator's visit to Prabaker's native village of Sunder,his work in the zhopadpatti slum, his experience with the monsoon andthe cholera, his work for Abdel Khader Khan and the Bombay Mafia, hisstays at the Arthur Road Prison and the Colaba lock-up and finally hisfight for the mujaheddin cause in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Mr Roberts wonderfully shows both the generosity and the violence ofthe Indian people's character. The spirit of Bombay is rendered insplendid descriptions so that altogether this novel is thoroughlyenjoyable to read.

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)I have not yet finished reading this book but I already need tocomment on this masterpiece. Shantaram may not be a flawless work andparts of the book and especially sometimes the imagery and phrasesused appear a bit cheesy. A few comparisons and philosophical thoughtsare either a bit far-fetched or very general and superficial.

This may sound like a book of which one can use the paper to lit afire with on a cold winter day. BUT, despite some (undisputable) flawsI give the book 4 stars because it, nevertheless, has become one of myfavourite books. The amazing and outstanding qualities of the book letyou forget the (minor) flaws mentioned above.

The story is thrilling, funny and never boring. One starts to feelthat what this guy writes is what he really experienced (at least mostof it) and I prefer an honest, true, heart-breaking, interesting storywith a few stylistic flaws to over-intellectual, cold and too perfectworks by some acclaimed literary authors. This is the story of a man'slife, which is far from being a common, everyday one. Let me tell youone thing: this man has got a lot to tell you. Buy the book, sit down,make yourself comfortable and dive into the world of Greg DavidRoberts. I bet you won't regret it...

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)Shantaram is one of the best books I ever read, and I read an awfullot!!! The Author has a great gift of storytelling, the plot isterrific, his descriptions of the places, the people, their culture isabsolutely gorgeous. So don't hesitate, read this book, it is worthevery cent and you'll not put it down till you reach the last page.

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)Others have already given this book the raving reviews it deserves. Iwon't attempt to add to their comments, except to simply say that youshouldn't be put-off by the size of this book - once you start readingit you won't be able to put it down! (and will sadly be through itfaster than you wished!)

I have read many books on India and spent time in Bombay and Delhi. Nobook, no sojourn has brought me so close to and deeply into the Heartof India. The simplicity of style, the at times almost brutal honestyof Gregory Roberts, the expressions of love for the people he met, thelessons he learned, remind me of Barack Obama's "Dreams from myFather". Shantaram is an amazing book which lets you feel you arethere. You feel the humid heat of Bombay, you smell all the smells,good or bad, you see the purple sunset, you are amongst his friendsand could almost touch them. You could find your way into the slum andfeel sure of a welcome, even as a stranger. I felt encompassed byPrabaker's smile, felt the loyalty of Lin's friends as if they weremine. I felt the struggles Lin went through to find his way in life,as if they were my own. I never could condemn him for his "evil"deeds, as he was giving all the love he had to give at the same time.As someone already said, I was very sorry when I came to the lastpage, because it meant coming back to my own world, like after aholiday. And my world seems drab and poor, though I don't live in aslum. And no news report has shown me the futility, the atrocity, theheart-wrenching sadness of Afghans killing their Afghan brothers,supported by profit-seeking Americans and Russians for their owngoals. Shantaram. (Abacus)

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram (Audio CD)Shantaram No doubt about it, from the moment the story teller embarksfrom the plane to sticky Bombay, the reader is hooked and will presson to read about slum dwellers, their modes of survivals, boozy whiteexpats making a living in Bombay and other exciting stuff. The problemis: The whole long book is mixed with a sense of self-indulgence bythe author lecturing us on life and philosophy. Which alone is not sobad would he not to press on to tell the most boring love story everput into writing. the book is worth your time if you are interested inIndia, slum life, street fighting and wanna-be philosophicexcursions.

I listened to the unabridged audio book, and enjoyed the speaker'sdifferent voices. He catches the Bombay accents very well (as far as Ican tell). The female characters annoying me most in the book are readwith a certain ironic "flat" tone as if the audio book reader wouldshare my feeling of boredom with them as well. Nice touch.

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)Not the best of stories [in terms of fairly imagery and love "scenes"]but nevertheless so far a gritty tale of his descent into India'sunderworld and his involvement in the Russian-Afghan war - with somevery vivid descriptions of the India that I have come to know and loveand hate over the past years! Nevertheless unputdownable... For aquick fix if you've ever been to India and want to get past the colourof the place, an eye-opener at times and a jaw-dropper too. What I didlike - although it has been a point of criticism in other reviews - isthe fact that it sometimes is very loosely constructed. After all, itis suppoed to be an autobiography - or a memoir? Who knows?

I have lived a couple of years in India in the 1990's (about 800 kmsouth of Bombay) and can only confirm that the ambience, the life, thecolours and smells of India truly come to life in this book. It ishonest and authentic but what makes this book an amazing piece ofliterature is the fantastic story - because it is fantastically told.I could hardly put the book down, although I would imagine that theauthor may have taken some artistic licence in some of hisdescriptions. This does not detract from the book which - no doubt -will one day be a Holly/Bollywood movie. An absolute must-read.

Rezension übernommen von: Shantaram. (Abacus) (Taschenbuch)Shantaram is one of that kind of books that calls for a rainy or foggyNovember day, for a cosy chair and a good, steaming Indian Darjeelingcup of tea.It is a strong and satisfying novel, with a taste that lingers thememory.I love it very much because of the first-person narrative and of awonderful, admirable writing style as well.

After escaping from an Australian most inhuman prison in the early80s, Gregory David Roberts, an armed robber and heroin addict wasusing the name Lindsay Ford from a false New Zealand passport forsmuggling himself to India to go underground in the slum of Bombay(Mumbai). Since he escaped, he flew across the world because he wasthe most wanted man of his country.

Here he tells his story about his first trip to India. Living in theland where heart is the king, left everything behind, he was justrunning on instinct and pushing his luck. Accordingly to hisexperiences the simple and astonishing truth about India and Indianpeople is that, when you go there and you deal with them, your heartalways guides you more wisely than your head. It was one of his bestdecisions of his life as he trusted the Indian fellow on sight and hegot the chance to know and to love him as friend.

The luck led him to know a mysterious but beautiful woman, he has everseen, green-eyed Karla Saaranen, on his very first day on the streetof Bombay. She was reasonably good at being a friend, but at being anenemy also. In his opinion Karla had that kind of power to make menshine like the stars, or crash them to dust.Lindsay learned some Indian languages Hindi, Marathi but himselfbecame to be well known by the nicknames Lin, Linbaba, Shantaram oreven The Bite of the Tiger.Using his first-aid kit as the basis, he established in poverty ofBombay illegal slum a little open-air health clinic. Just trying to dothe right thing, he found often a quantum of solace in his work and byhis friends like Prabaker Kishan Kharre or Abdullah Taheri.

Fate put him into the game of the Bombay mafia. Worked as a gunrunner,as a smuggler and a counterfeiter. He found some honourable men. Ofcourse, it is strange and incongrous to hear how he describescriminals, killers, and mafiosi as men of honour who were amongstthem. Nevertheles, he had some strange experiences and this is theextremly gripping story of his life, told with all his heart. It was areal blow to him to be buffeled by fate but he kept on his aim atwriting under the hardest circumstances.

Now, Gregory David Roberts is a fulltime writer. He lives inMelbourne.He created the atmosphere of the slum in the suburbs of Bombay and itsevents in the richest details. His enthralling debut novel tells anadventure about love, hate, fight, betrayal and conspiracy. You canget lost into for days, not just hours.

This is a fascinating book which I could not leave alone - I had toread it and was intrigued about what would come after the next corner.And the next...A completely new perspective of the Bombay slum and of the socialnetworks. Plus, the bittersweet love story. It is well written andbears the touch of reality.Absolutely worthy entertainment. I would be very much interested tolearn how he was captured finally and what he is doing now.

The author is writing about her experiences in the sub-continent in avey funny and humorous way. Especially for people like me, who areliving in India as a foreigner or planning a trip to India, the bookis recommendable. She is describing the every-day problems people witha "wester culture" have to face with because of the culturaldifferences between the...Vollständige Rezension lesen ›Veröffentlicht am 5. Juli 2004 von Amazon-Kunde

I just finished this book and am disappointed overall. There was toomuch religion and personal soul-searching by the author. I wanted moreINDIA. Yet this book did feed my desire to go to India one day, so itwasn't all that bad. I took some notes on festivals and villages Iwould like to see, but I was expecting more after reading the otherreviews.Veröffentlicht am 20. März 2007 von beegowhite

The author is writing about her experiences in the sub-continent in avey funny and humorous way. Especially for people like me, who areliving in India as a foreigner or planning a trip to India, the bookis recommendable. She is describing the every-day problems people witha "wester culture" have to face with because of the culturaldifferences between the "Wester world" and India.I recommend the book for everyone who is planning a long-time ortravel-trip to the beautiful country of india. You can learn about theindian culture and about "not-understandable" cultural differences ina funny way...

I just finished this book and am disappointed overall. There was toomuch religion and personal soul-searching by the author. I wanted moreINDIA. Yet this book did feed my desire to go to India one day, so itwasn't all that bad. I took some notes on festivals and villages Iwould like to see, but I was expecting more after reading the otherreviews.

"Holy Cow" was meant to be a beach read, but proved to be not onlyentertaining, but also educating and inspiring:

Macdonald herself calls her second stint in India "a pilgrimagethrough India's spiritualistic supermarket" and herself a "karmachameleon". "Holy Cow" presents the diversity of India's manifoldreligions, deals with their differences and similarities. Macdonaldspends several days in an ashram, attends the Kumbh Mela in Benares,celebrates Pesach with a group of Israelis, visits a church in theSouth of India, immerses herself into Bhuddism, Hinduism etc. Shemeets lots of people, makes many a friend and addresses differentattitudes, styles, beliefs and traditions. But most of all sheportrays India as the fascinating land of contrasts that it is.

Reading this diary-like account is nearly like being in India: itassaults all your senses and yet is very lovable. It is written in alight-hearted yet sensitive manner and probably politically incorrect,because Macondald speaks her mind;-). But that makes the read all themore worthwhile!

Result: Not to be missed! In fact her style reminds me a bit of BillBryson's books. So if you are a fan of Bill Bryson's you might likethis one as well!

Australian radio correspondent Macdonald's rollicking memoir recountsthe two years she spent in India when her boyfriend, Jonathan, a TVnews correspondent, was assigned to New Delhi. Leaving behind her ownbudding career, she spends her sabbatical traveling around thecountry, sampling India's "spiritual smorgasbord": attending a silentretreat for Vipassana meditation, seeking out a Sikh Ayurvedic"miracle healer," bathing in the Ganges with Hindus, studying Buddhismin Dharamsala, dabbling in Judaism with Israeli tourists, dipping intoParsi practices in Mumbai, visiting an ashram in Kerala, attending aChristian festival in Velangani and singing with Sufis. ParallelingMacdonald's spiritual journey is her evolution as a writer; she tradesher sometimes glib remarks ("I've always thought it hilarious thatIndian people chose the most boring, domesticated, compliant andstupidest animal on earth to adore") and 1980s song title references(e.g., "Karma Chameleon") for a more sensitive tone and a soberunderstanding that neither mocks nor romanticizes Indian culture andthe Western visitors who embrace it. The book ends on a serious note,when September 11 shakes Macdonald's faith and Jonathan, now herhusband, is sent to cover the war in Afghanistan. Macdonald is lesscompelling when writing about herself, her career and her relationshipthan when she is describing spiritual centers, New Delhi nightclubsand Bollywood cinema. Still, she brings a reporter's curiosity,interviewing skills and eye for detail to everything she encounters,and winningly captures "[t]he drama, the dharma, the innocentexuberance of the festivals, the intensity of the living, the piety inplayfulness and the embrace of living day by day..--he drama, thedharma, the innocent exuberance of the festivals, the intensity of theliving, the piety in playfulness and the embrace of living day byday."

Australian MacDonald didn't fall in love with India her first timethere, at age 21. So when her boyfriend, Jonathan, a reporter for ABC,is sent there for work, she reluctantly follows after a year ofseparation. At first, life in India is as bad as she remembered it--overcrowded, smoggy, disturbing. A serious bout of pneumonia puts herin an Indian hospital, but as she recovers, she begins to make friendsin India and to understand the culture. She finds herself attendinglavish Indian weddings and trying to comfort her friend Padma, whosemother commits suicide after Padma marries without her permission.MacDonald makes an effort to understand the many diverse religions ofthe area, including taking a 10-day sojourn in a Buddhist temple anddiscussing religion with Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and even a group ofvisiting Israelis. With Jonathan, she takes a trip to war-tornKashmir, an area that is at once achingly beautiful and devastatinglydangerous. A lively, snappy travelogue. Kristine Huntley

“India is like Wonderland. In this other universe everyone seems madand everything is upside down, back to front and infuriatinglybizarre . . .”In her twenties Sarah Macdonald backpacked around Indiaand came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution, andpoverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her shewould return to India -- and for love -- she screamed, “Never!” andgave the country, and him, the finger.

But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love ofMacdonald’s life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to moveto the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. For Macdonald thisseems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, and it almost kills her,literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with doublepneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some seriousquestions about her own fragile mortality and inner spiritual void. “Imust find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes.“Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in searchof the meaning of life and death. Holy Cow is Sarah Macdonald’s oftenhilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos andcontradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis,Sikhs, Parsis, and Christians, and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis,and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas towar zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a womanon a mission to save her soul, her love life -- and her sanity -- cansurvive.

Synopsis

After backpacking her way around India, 21-year-old Sarah Macdonalddecided that she hated this land of chaos and contradiction with apassion, and when an airport beggar read her palm and insisted shewould come back one day - and for love - she vowed never to return.But twelve years later the prophecy comes true when her partner, ABC'sSouth Asia correspondent, is posted to New Delhi, the most pollutedcity on earth. Having given up a blossoming radio career in Sydney tofollow her new boyfriend to India, it seems like the ultimatesacrifice and it almost kills Sarah - literally. After being cursed bya sadhu smeared in human ashes, she nearly dies from double pheumonia.It's enough to send a rapidly balding atheist on a wild rollercoasterride through India's many religions in search of the meaning of lifeand death. From the 'brain enema' of a meditation retreat inDharamsala to the biggest Hindu festival on earth on the steps of theGanges in Varanasi, and with the help of the Dalai Lama, a goddess ofhealing hugs and a couple of Bollywood stars - among many, many others- Sarah discovers a hell of a lot more.Über den Autor

Sarah Macdonald is a journalist and radio broadcaster who lives inSydney with her husband, ABC journalist Jonathan Harley, and theirbaby daughter Georgina. HOLY COW! is her first book.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A lawyer for Bhagwan Shree Rajneeshclaims the federal government poisoned the Indian guru in 1985 aspart of a conspiracy to force him out of the United States.

Swami Prem Niren, who served as Rajneesh's chief attorneyduring the rise and fall of the Rajneeshpuram commune in centralOregon, said Monday that Rajneesh believes he was poisoned inlate 1985 while he was in an Oklahoma City jail.

Rajneesh, 56, recently has been ill, and doctors concluded hissymptoms were consistent with thallium poisoning, Niren said in atelephone interview. However, he said tests found no trace ofthe rare, poisonous element in Rajneesh.

Veet Mano, director of the Rajneesh Press Services in LosAngeles, charged in a news release received Monday by TheAssociated Press that "the United States government conspired tomurder Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh." Niren said, however, there wasno evidence of that.

"That is an unfortunate phrase," he said. "It's one of thosethings. PR people say things different than lawyers do."

Rajneesh now lives in Poona, India, where his movement wasbased before he moved to a remote, 64,000-acre Oregon ranch in1981. He was deported in November 1985 after he pleaded guiltyto immigration fraud in a plea agreement with federalprosecutors.

Rajneesh has been suffering for the past two months fromnausea, fatigue, pain in his extremities and a lack of resistenceto infection, and was near death for a while, Niren said.

An Indian health official said recently that Rajneesh hadAIDS, but his disciples say a test proved the claim was false.

Rajneesh first experienced poisoning symptoms after a meal ina jail in Oklahoma City, leading him to believe he was poisoned,Niren said. Niren said he does not believe jailers in OklahomaCity were responsible for the alleged poisoning. He speculatedthe CIA was involved.

"Of course, years after the event I don't expect anyone in thegovernment or anywhere else to come forward and say, `I'mresponsible for it,"' Niren said.

Rajneesh, who was arrested in Charlotte, N.C., in October 1985while allegedly trying to flee the United States, was heldovernight in Oklahoma City while being taken back to Oregon toface criminal charges.

Niren, who said he is writing a book about his experienceswith the Rajneesh movement and the commune's legal battles, saidthe government never had evidence linking Rajneesh to any crimes.

Niren said he recommended Rajneesh accept the plea bargainthat led to his deportation because of concerns over the guru'shealth.

"Otherwise the government persecution would continue and hecouldn't take it," he said. "They intended to persecute him untilhe left or was broken."

Charles H. Turner, the U.S. attorney who led the prosecutionof Rajneesh and several of his lieutenents, dismissed Niren'sallegations today.

"It's a total and complete fiction and you have to considerthe source," Turner said. "The man has no credibility."

Turner noted that a federal judge determined that Rajneesh hadcommitted crimes, and the guru was represented by "threeextremely skilled lawyers," including Niren. If Niren hadrecommended Rajneesh plead guilty to a crime he did not commit,the attorney could be disbarred, Turner said.

Rajneesh also had access to any medical care he needed whilehe was in jail, Turner added.

"I stood next the man in court and there wasn't anything wrongwith him at all," he said.

The commune disbanded after Rajneesh's departure and theproperty remains for sale.

Rajneesh, a self-described "rich man's guru," teachesmeditation as a means to enlightenment.

Niren, also known as Philip J. Toelkes, said he traveled afterthe commune broke up and has been practicing law in SanFrancisco.

http://www.skepticfiles.org/cultinfo/gurupois.htm

Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh, and the Lost Truthby Christopher Calder

When I first met Acharya Rajneesh at his Bombay apartment in Decemberof 1970, he was only 39 years old. With long beard and large darkeyes, he looked like a painting of Lao-Tse come to life. Beforemeeting Rajneesh I had spent time with a number of Eastern guruswithout being satisfied with their teachings. I wanted an enlightenedguide who could bridge the gap between East and West and reveal thetrue esoteric secrets, without what I considered to be the excessbaggage of Indian, Tibetan, or Japanese culture. Rajneesh was theanswer to my quest for those deeper meanings. He described for me invivid detail everything I wanted to know about the inner worlds and hehad the power of immense being to back up his words. At 21 years oldI was naive about life and the nature of man and assumed thateverything he said must be true.

Rajneesh spoke on a high level of intelligence and his spiritualpresence emanated from his body like a soft light that healed allwounds. While sitting close during a small gathering of friends,Rajneesh took me on a rapidly vertical inner journey that almostseemed to push me out of my physical body. His vast presence liftedeveryone around him higher without the slightest effort on theirpart. The days I spent at his Bombay apartment were like days spentin heaven. He had it all and he was giving it away for free!

Rajneesh possessed the astounding powers of telepathy and astralprojection, which he used nobly to bring comfort and inspiration tohis disciples. Many phony gurus have claimed to have these mysteriousabilities, but Rajneesh had them for real. The Acharya never braggedabout his powers. Those who came near soon learned of them throughdirect contact with the miraculous.

Rajneesh, aka "Osho"at his arrest inOctober 1985

One or two amazing occult adventures was all it took to turndoubting Western skepticism into awed admiration and devotion.

One year earlier I had meet another enlightened teacher, knownto the world as Jiddu Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti could barely give acoherent lecture and constantly scolded his audience by referring totheir "shoddy little minds." I loved his frankness and his words weretrue, but his subtly cantankerous nature was not very helpful intransferring his knowledge to others.

Listening to Krishnamurti speak was like eating a sandwich madeof bread and sand. I found the best way to enjoy his talks was tocompletely ignore his words and quietly absorb his presence. Usingthat technique I would become so expanded after a lecture that I couldbarely talk for hours afterwards. J. Krishnamurti, while fullyenlightened and uniquely lovable, will be recorded in history as ateacher with very poor verbal communication skills. Unlike the highlyeloquent Rajneesh, however, Krishnamurti never committed any crime,never pretended to be more than he was, and never used other humanbeings selfishly.

"Ma Anand Sheela,"Osho's Top Deputy,at her arrest in 1985

Life is complex and multilayered and my naive illusions about thephenomena of perfect enlightenment faded with the years. It becameclear to me that enlightened people are as fallible as anyone. Theyare expanded human beings, not perfect human beings, and they live andbreathe with many of the same faults and vulnerabilities we ordinaryhumans must endure.

Skeptics ask how I can claim that Rajneesh was enlightened given hisscandals and disastrous public image. I can only say that Rajneesh'sspiritual presence was identical to that of J. Krishnamurti, who wasrecognized as enlightened by every high Tibetan Lama and revered Hindusage of the day. I do sympathize with the skeptics, however. If Ihad not known Rajneesh personally, I would never believe it myself.

Rajneesh pushed the envelope of enlightenment in both positive andnegative directions. He was the best of the best and the worst of theworst. He was a great teacher in his early years, with innovativemeditation techniques that worked with dramatic power (see explanationand warning about Osho's Dynamic Meditation technique near the bottomof the page). Rajneesh lifted thousands of seekers to higher levelsof consciousness and detailed Eastern religions and meditationtechniques with luminous clarity.

When former university professor Acharya Rajneesh suddenlychanged his name to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, I was dismayed. Thefamous enlightened sage Ramana Maharshi was called Bhagwan by hisdisciples as a spontaneous term of endearment. Rajneesh simplydeclared that everyone should start calling him Bhagwan, a title whichcan mean anything from 'divine one' to God. Rajneesh became irritatedwhen I would politely correct his mispronunciations of English wordsafter his lectures, so I felt in no position to tell him that Ithought his new name was inappropriate and dishonest. That change inname marked a turning point in Rajneesh's level of honesty and was thefirst of many big lies to come.

One false move, one grand error.

Rajneesh lived in an ivory tower, rarely leaving his room unless togive a lecture, his life experience cushioned by throngs of adoringdevotees. As most human beings who are treat as kings, Rajneesh losttouch with the world of the common man. In his artificial andinsulated existence, Rajneesh made one fundamental error in judgmentwhich would destroy his teaching.Rajneesh calculated that the majority of the earth's populationwas on such a low level of consciousness that they could notunderstand nor tolerate the real truths. He thus decided on a policyof spreading seemingly useful lies to bring inspiration to hisdisciples and, on occasion, to stress his students in uniquesituations for their own personal growth. This was his downfall andthe prime reason he will be remembered by most historians as justanother phony guru, which he undoubtedly was not.

Originally Osho gave himself the lofty title "Sri Bhagavan Rajneesh"

Acharya, Bhagwan Shree, Osho...all the empowering names taken byRajneesh could not cover up the fact that he was still a human being.He had ambitions and desires, sexual and material, just like everyoneelse. All living enlightened humans have desires. All enlightened menhave had public lives that we know about and all have had privatelives that remained secret. The vast majority of enlightened men donothing but good for the world. Only Rajneesh, to my knowledge,became a criminal in both the legal and ethical sense of the word.

Rajneesh never lost the ultimate existential truth of being. Heonly lost the ordinary concept of truth that any normal adult caneasily understand. He rationalized his constant lying as "left-handedTantra," but that too was dishonest. Rajneesh lied to save face, toavoid taking responsibility for his own mistakes, and to gain personalpower. Those lies had nothing to do with Tantra or any selfless actsof kindness. What is real in this world is fact and Rajneeshmisrepresented fact on a daily basis. Rajneesh was no simple con-manlike so many others. Rajneesh knew everything that Buddha knew and hewas everything that Buddha was. It was his loss of respect forordinary truthfulness that destroyed his teaching.

Rajneesh was constantly sick and frail from the time I first methim in 1970 until his death in 1990. He could not stand on his feetfor long periods of time without becoming lightheaded because hesuffered damage to his autonomic nervous system which controls bloodpressure. This neurally mediated hypotension (low blood pressurewhile standing) causes chronic fatigue and can also lower IQ due to alack of sufficient blood and oxygen being pumped to the brain (brainhypoxia). When he was most ill he would complain of becominglightheaded as soon as he stood up. He thought he was getting adifferent cold or flu every week. In reality he suffered from asingular chronic illness with flu like symptoms that can last fordecades.

In his last years Rajneesh used prescription drugs, mainlyValium (diazepam), as an analgesic for his aches and pains. He tookthe maximum recommended dose of 60 milligrams per day. He alsoinhaled nitrous oxide (N2O) mixed with pure oxygen (O2) which helpedhis asthma and brain hypoxia, but which did nothing for the quality ofhis judgment. Naive about the powerful effects of Western medicationsand overconfident about his own ability to fight off their potentiallynegative effects, Rajneesh succumbed to addiction. His downfall andhumiliation followed swiftly.

Rajneesh was a physically ill man who became mentally corrupt.His drug addiction was a problem of his own making, not a governmentconspiracy. Rajneesh died in 1990, with heart failure listed as theofficial cause of death. It is probable that the physical declineRajneesh experienced during his incarceration in American jails wasdue to a combination of withdrawal symptoms from Valium and anaggravation of his ME/CFS due to stress and exposure to allergens.

There was much speculation in the American media that Osho hadactually committed suicide by taking a drug overdose. As no one hasconfessed to giving Osho a lethal injection, there is no hard evidenceto support the suicide theory. A compelling circumstantial case couldbe made for such a scenario, however, with suicide provoked by Osho'sconstant ill health and disheartenment over the loss of Vivek, hisgreatest love. Vivek had taken a fatal overdose of sleeping pills ina Bombay hotel one month before Osho's passing. Pointedly, Vivekdecided to kill herself just before Osho's final birthdaycelebration. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had threatened suicide at theOregon commune several times, hanging his death over the heads of hisdisciples as a threat unless they obeyed his wishes. On his last dayon earth, Osho's is reported to have said "Let me go. My body hasbecome a hell for me."

The rumor that Osho was poisoned with thallium by operatives ofthe United States Government is entirely fictional and contradicted byundeniable fact. One of the obvious symptoms of thallium poisoning isdramatic hair loss within seven days of exposure. Osho died with afull beard and no exceptional baldness other than ordinary malepattern baldness at the top of his head. Many of the symptoms whichmay have led Osho's doctors to suspect thallium poisoning were in factcommon symptoms of dysautonomia (damage to the autonomic nervoussystem) caused by ME/CFS. Those symptoms can include ataxia(uncoordinated movements), numbness, standing tachycardia (rapid heartrate upon standing), paresthesia (sensations of prickling anditching), nausea, and irritable bowel syndrome, which causesalternating between constipation and diarrhea.

The only proven cases of poisoning related to Osho were carriedout by Rajneesh sannyasins themselves (a sannyasin is an initiateddisciple, one who takes sannyas). The victims included totallyinnocent people at an Oregon restaurant, two Wasco CountyCommissioners, and members of Rajneesh's own staff who were poisonedby Ma Anand Sheela, Rajneesh's personal secretary. Sheela had thehabit of poisoning people who either knew too much or who had simplyfallen out of her favor. Sheela spent two and a half years in afederal medium security prison for her crimes while Rajneesh pledguilty to immigration fraud and was given a ten year suspendedsentence, fined $400,000., and deported from the United States ofAmerica.

Rajneesh felt that teaching ethics and morality was unnecessarybecause the increased consciousness of meditation would automaticallylead to good behavior. Rajneesh's own actions and the behavior of hisdisciples proves that theory to be untrue. There is no directconnection between meditation and ethics and the dangers andlimitations of teaching ethics are far outweighed by the destructiveanarchy that a lack of teaching creates. Certainly students ofmeditation should at least be reminded that lying, cheating, stealing,and killing are not acceptable behavior. But Osho taught that youshould do as you please and many of his disciples and he himselfcommitted many ethical crimes. This lapse of judgment was largely dueto the arrogant and downright fascist attitude that one can become sohigh and mighty that one is beyond the need for something as oldfashioned as polite and sane ethical behavior.

Those unfamiliar with the Rajneesh story can read the bookBhagwan: The God That Failed, by Hugh Milne (Shivamurti), a closedisciple of Bhagwan during his Poona and Oregon years. Originallypublished by Saint Martin's Press, the book can be found throughAmazon.Com and Amazon.Com.UK. I can verify many of the facts that Mr.Milne states about the life of Rajneesh in Bombay and Poona though Ihave no first hand knowledge of the tragic events at the Oregoncommune. My contacts with people who were there lead me to believethat most of the facts Mr. Milne presents of the Oregon era are alsohighly accurate. Hugh Milne is due great credit for a well writtenand entertaining book which is a sincere effort at complete honesty.On a few occasions, however, I differ from Mr. Milne's interpretationsof what the facts he presents actually mean.

Firstly, Rajneesh did not suffer from "hypochodria," as Mr.Milne suggested. Rajneesh had a very real neurological disease,probably inherited, which he mistook for frequent viral infections.Rajneesh became unusually afraid of germs only due to his veryinnocent and understandable medical ignorance. I fully agree with Mr.Milne that Rajneesh suffered from "megalomania," however, and will addthat Rajneesh had a Napoleonic, obsessive and compulsive personality.

The Void has no ambition whatsoever, a fact which current Oshodisciples keep forgetting. Rajneesh could only speak for his ownpersonal animal mind, which is the case for all of us. The animalmind may want its disciples to "take over the whole world," but theVoid does not care because it is beyond any motivation. The Void isinfinity and beyond human desire, so how can that which is beyond thehuman mind have human ambitions? The phenomena we called Rajneesh,Bhagwan, and Osho was only a temporary lens of cosmic energy, not thefull cosmos itself. Personality worship is not spiritual in any wayand self-indulgent attachment to guru is no better than obsessiveclinging to money, power, and social privilege. I am sure Mr. Milnehas learned that fact very well, but many fanatic Osho disciples havemissed the point entirely.

Mr. Milne also suggests that Rajneesh used "hypnosis" tomanipulate his disciples. Rajneesh had a wonderful, melodic, andnaturally hypnotic voice which would be a great asset to any publicspeaker. However, in my personal opinion, Rajneesh's power came fromthe intense energy field of the universal cosmic consciousness whichhe channeled like a lens. Hindus call this universal energy phenomenathe Atman. As a Westerner, I prefer more scientific terms, anddescribe the Atman as a highly evolved manifestation of time-energy-space, the TES (see The TES Hypothesis).

Enlightenment is not something you own. It is something you channel.

Whatever term you use for the phenomena of enlightenment, it isscientifically accurate to say that no human being has any power oftheir own. Even the chemical energy of our metabolism is borrowedfrom the sun, which beams light to the earth, which is then convertedby plants through photosynthesis into the food we eat. You may getyour bread from the supermarket but the caloric energy it containsoriginated from thermonuclear reactions deep in the center of a nearbystar. Our physical bodies run on star power. Any spiritual energy wechannel also comes from far beyond, from all sides of the universe,from the complete TES, from beyond the oceans of galaxies and ontoinfinity. No human being owns the Atman and no one can speak for theTES.

Rajneesh, as George Gurdjieff, often used the power of the Atmanfor clearly personal gain. Both men used their cosmic consciousnessto overwhelm and seduce women, which was largely a harmless affair inmy opinion. Gurdjieff was ashamed of his own behavior in this regardand vowed many times during his life to end this practice, which was acombination of ordinary male sexual lust backed up by the potentadvantage of oceanic spiritual power. Rajneesh went even further andused his channeled cosmic energy to manipulate masses of people togain a kind of quasi-political status and to aggrandize himself farbeyond what was honest or helpful to his disciples. In Oregon he evendeclared to the media that "My religion is the only religion."Diplomacy and modesty were not his strong points.

Gurdjieff, to my knowledge, never reached the extremes of self-indulgence of Rajneesh and even warned his disciples not to have blindfaith in him. Gurdjieff wanted his students to be free andindependent with the combined abilities of clear mental reasoning andmeditation. Rajneesh, by contrast, seemed to believe that only histhoughts and ideas were of value because only he was "enlightened."This was a grand error in judgment and revealed a basic flaw in hischaracter.

Rajneesh earned his psychic abilities honestly through manylifetimes of intense inner work. Unfortunately, when he finallyachieved the ability to fully channel the vastness of the Atman, hefailed to apply the needed wisdom of self-restraint. His human mindso rebelled against Asian asceticism, which he claimed to havepracticed for many lifetimes, that he failed to ensure that hisborrowed power was only used for the good of others.

"Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac." Henry Kissinger

After leaving India, Rajneesh created his Oregon commune fromhis own powerful mind. He made himself the ultimate dictator, hispicture placed everywhere as in an Orwellian bad dream. Thattotalitarian atmosphere was just one of the many reasons I did notstay at the Oregon commune beyond several brief visits. I wasinterested in meditation, not in a big concentration camp where humanbeings were treated like insects with no intelligence of their own.Rajneesh put such a high emphasis on his disciples following orderswithout question that they did just that when Ma Anand Sheela,Rajneesh's personal secretary, gave absurd orders to commit crimeswhich Rajneesh himself would have never approved of.

When you decapitate the intelligence of human beings you createa situation that is highly dangerous and destructive to the humanspirit. You cannot save people from their egos by demanding "totalsurrender." The anti-democratic technique of forcing blind obediencedid not work well for Hitler, Stalin, or for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.Germany, Russia, and the Rajneesh Oregon commune were all destroyedbecause of authoritarian imperial rule. A diversity of opinion isalways healthy because it acts as an effective counterbalance to themyopic arrogance of those who would be king. Bhagwan never understoodthis truth of history and referred to democracy scornfully as "mob-ocracy." Rajneesh was an imperial aristocrat, never a generous andopen minded democrat, and he put his contempt for the democraticprocess into highly visible action in Oregon.

In an attempt to subvert local Wasco County elections, Rajneeshhad his sannyasins bus in almost 2,000 homeless people from majorAmerican cities in an effort to unfairly rig the voting process in hisfavor. Some of the new voters were mentally ill and were given druglaced beer to keep them manageable. Credible allegations have beenmade that one or more of the imported street people died due tooverdosing on the beer-drug mixture, but to my knowledge that chargehas not been conclusively proven. Rajneesh's voting fraud schemefailed and the once again homeless were returned to the streets afterthe election was over, used and then abandoned. If Rajneeshsannyasins had only held truth above all instead of obedience to guruabove all, then no crimes would have been committed and the communemight still be in existence today.

Rajneesh used people, spoke out of both sides of his mouth, andbetrayed the trust of his own disciples. This betrayal caused Vivek,his longtime girlfriend and companion, to commit suicide. Rajneesheven lied about her death, slandering his greatest love in her graveby falsely claiming that she was chronically depressed due to someintrinsic emotional instability. Vivek was never depressed during theyears I knew her and she was the most radiant women I have everknown.

Vivek was a highly advanced, literally glowing student ofmeditation, but her only meditation method was being with Bhagwan andabsorbing his tremendous spiritual presence. When her one method andone true love collapsed into insanity, she took her own life out ofoverwhelming grief. Rajneesh drove her to suicide because she couldnot understand nor tolerate his mental decline and collapse. Rajneeshlied about her death simply to avoid taking responsibility for his ownbizarre behavior, which was the underlying cause of Vivek's despair.

The very same Western disciple who administered nitrous oxide toOsho has been spreading negative rumors about Vivek, claiming that shewas not a meditative person (as himself) and that she committedsuicide because of a hormonal imbalance and also because she wasdepressed about reaching the age of forty. This same sannyasin deniedto me emphatically that he gave Rajneesh irresponsible levels ofnitrous oxide, but later admitted to others that he gave Rajneesh oneto two hour nitrous oxide "treatments" every day for five months.That level of exposure is clearly dangerous drug abuse with nolegitimate medical justification.

The young Acharya Rajneesh started his life as a teacher whocondemned false gurus and he ended his life as one of the mostdeceitful gurus the world has ever known. The difficult fact tocomprehend is that he was enlightened when he was an anti-guru puritanand he was still enlightened when he was the ultimate self-indulgentguru himself. This seemingly irreconcilable contradiction is the realreason I write this essay. I love to go into uncharted territorywhere others fear to tread.

When you combine man's natural tendency for selfishness with anivory tower lifestyle, you have a situation where ethical behavior canappear to be optional. Combine the unhealthy atmosphere of self-deification with a debilitating progressive illness that lowers IQ,and on top of that add drug abuse, then you have a cliff that even anenlightened man could fall from. That fall could happen only if theenlightened man makes one wrong choice, one false move, from both theheart and from the mind.

Bhagwan's wrong choice was to disregard truthfulness in favor ofwhat he thought were useful lies. Once you make that wrong turn, awayfrom ordinary straightforward truth, you have lost your way. No humanbeing can disregard fact on a regular basis without finding himself ina sea of turmoil because by discarding fact you discard the groundbeneath your feet. Little lies grow into big lies and the now hiddentruth becomes your enemy, not your friend and ally.

Rajneesh overestimated himself and underestimated his owndisciples. The real seekers of knowledge around him could have easilyhandled the truth and were already motivated without the need forpropaganda. But Rajneesh had been a high guru for such a long time,not just in this life but in previous lives as well, that he came tosee himself in grandiose terms. He was indeed an historic figure buthe was not the perfect superman he pretended to be. No one is! Hisdisciples deserved honesty but he fed them fairy tales "to give themfaith."

Jiddu Krishnamurti had been more honest than Rajneesh inrepeating relentlessly that "there is no authority" due to theintrinsic nature of the cosmos. Ardent Rajneesh disciples didn't heedKrishnamurti's warnings and put blind faith in a man who claimed to beall-seeing, to have all the answers, and who once in 1975 brashlyproclaimed that he had never made a single mistake in his entirelife. Clearly Rajneesh made as many mistakes as any human being.Just as obviously, his basic existential enlightenment was noguarantee of functional pragmatic wisdom.

While Rajneesh was a brilliant philosopher, he was a lost babein the woods when it came to the world of science. Worried aboutworldwide overpopulation, Rajneesh pressured his disciples to undergomedical sterilization procedures. Unfortunately, he did not considerthe demographics of population growth. The current populationexpansion is largely a phenomena of poor, third world nations, not aproblem originating in the USA, Canada, and Europe, where birth ratesare actually falling. North America and Europe are only experiencingpopulation increases due to legal and illegal immigration from thirdworld nations. Having his European and North American disciplesmedically sever their reproductive capabilities only added to thisimbalance and many former disciples now regret they complied withoutquestion to his thoughtless edicts.

Rajneesh also declared that the AIDS epidemic would soon killthree quarters of the world's population and that a major nuclear warwas just around the corner. He thought he could escape nuclearholocaust by building underground shelters and slow the spread of AIDSby having his disciples wash their hands with alcohol before eatingmeals. His more reasoned admonition was for his disciples to alwaysuse condoms. To enforce his sexual rules, which also involvedelaborate instructions on the use of rubber gloves during sexualencounters, Rajneesh encouraged his sannyasins to spy on each other,reporting the names of those who failed to conform to his orders.

"When it comes to gurus, take the best and leave the rest." RamamurtiMishra

The disaster of Rajneesh appointing himself the singular greatbrain of the universe was compounded by his lack of real worldreasoning skills, and this was the case even before he started takinglarge amounts of Valium. Rajneesh could weave magnificentphilosophical dreams and addict his disciples to imagined worlds ofspiritual adventure, but those dreams did not have to stand anyempirical test of truth. In the world of science you have to provewhat you say is true through testing. In the world of philosophy andreligion you can say anything you desire and throw caution to thewind. If your words sound good to the masses they will sell, whetherthey are fact or fiction.

Rajneesh had no understanding of, or appreciation for, thescientific method. If he thought something was true, in his own mind,that made it true. His disciples had to obey his words or be banishedfrom the mini-nation he created in the Oregon desert. Rajneesh ruledhis empire as a warlord with his own private army and puppetgovernment. His visions and ideas, faulty or not, were taken withoutquestion as the word of God. His disciples were judged by theirability to surrender to his will and any opposing views were brandedas negativity and an unspiritual lack of faith.

Rajneesh's poor reasoning became even more apparent during andafter the Oregon commune scandal. After being jailed and thendeported from the USA, Rajneesh angrily declared Americans "subhuman,"ignoring the fact that it was he, an Indian, who pled guilty to felonyimmigration fraud and that it was Sheela, an Indian, who ordered themost serious crimes which brought his empire to ruin. Even in hisfifties Rajneesh was still lying to get his own way, still demandingto always be the center of attention, and by 1988, suffering from drugand illness induced dementia, was pouting that his box of toys, hisexpensive car collection and jewel encrusted watches, had been takenaway.

Rajneesh's disciples thought they were following a reliable andauthoritative "enlightened master." In reality they had been misleadby a highly fallible enlightened human animal who was still a littleboy at heart. Rajneesh had not only misrepresented himselfpersonally, but he misrepresented the phenomena of enlightenmentitself. The idealized fantasy of perfect enlightenment does not existanywhere in the real world and it has never existed. The universe isfar too big and complex for anyone to be its master. We are allsubjects, not "masters," and those who pretend to be infallible andall-knowing end up looking even more the fool in the end.

The famous sages of old seem perfect to us now only because theyhave become larger than life myths. The long passage of time hasallowed their followers to effectively cover up their guru's flaws,just as Rajneesh disciples are currently rewriting and censoringhistory to cover up Rajneesh's great failings. Rajneesh was nevermore infallible than any other human being. What we callenlightenment is not a cure-all for faults and frailties that cling tohuman animals even after they achieve maximum possible consciousness,which is perhaps a more realistic definition of the term"enlightenment."

The ultimate existential truth is silent and beyond all words.Rajneesh embodied that truth up to the day he died. Visitors to hisashram in Poona, India, who are open to meditation, will feel a giantwave of consciousness there. That wave use to be connected to a humanbody we called Rajneesh. The body has been turned to ashes but thewave can still be felt. In the same way J. Krishnamurti's presencecan still be felt at Arya Vihara, his former home in Ojai,California.

"What you tell them is true, but what I tell them (the useful lies) isgood for them." Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh 1975

The contradiction of corruption and enlightenment can occurbecause the brain is never enlightened and enlightenment never says ordoes anything. In a way no one ever really becomes enlightened.Enlightenment happens at the place where you are standing but youcannot own it or possess it. All the words of so-called enlightenedmen come from the human mind and body which interprets the phenomenaof enlightenment like a translator. The words do not come froM theenlightenment itself. By definition enlightenment cannot speak. Itis absolutely silent and beyond any need to speak.

There are many layers to our beings. Some traditions havecategorized those layers as seven bodies, the first being the physicalbody and the seventh the nirvanic, the void from which all is born.No matter how you count the layers they do exist and the purely mentallayer is always there if you have a physical body. That layer can beaffected by disease and chemical exposure.

Osho died addicted to Valium and he experienced all the negativesymptoms of drug addiction, which included slurred speech, paranoia,poor judgment, and lowered intelligence. At one point his paranoiaand confusion were so great that he thought a group of German cultistshad cast an evil spell on him. His physical disabilities and drugabuse were simply more than his mortal brain could take. His biggestflaw, his disregard for the ordinary concept of truth, was hisultimate downfall and for that crime he must be held fully responsiblewith no excuses.

"Never give a sucker an even break." W.C. Fields

Bhagwan lied when he said he had enlightened disciples. He liedwhen he said he never made a mistake. Later he was forced to admit hewas fallible as his list of bungles grew to monstrous proportions. Helied by pretending that the therapy groups run by his disciples werenot mainly a money making device. Rajneesh broke immigration laws andlied about it in court. He lied by saying that he was adopted in aphony scheme to get permanent residence status. Bhagwan Rajneesh wasno murderer or bank robber, but he certainly was a very big liar. Theridiculous thing is that all of his lies were totally unnecessary andcounterproductive. Honesty really is the best policy.

Sadly, Rajneesh lied when he claimed he was not responsible forthe horrors of the Oregon commune because he hand picked Ma AnandSheela and the people who committed the major crimes of conspiracy tocommit murder, poisoning, first-degree assault, burglary, arson, andwiretapping. The fact that Rajneesh did not order or have pre-knowledge of the most serious crimes does not mean he was notethically responsible for them. If a teacher puts a drunken sailor incharge of driving a school bus and the children end up dead, then theteacher is responsible for their deaths. Rajneesh knew what kind ofperson Sheela was and he chose her because of her corruption andarrogance, not in spite of it. In a cowardly attempt to evade his ownfailings he changed his name from Bhagwan to Osho, as if a change inname could wash away his sins.

Some may be horrified that an enlightened soul could become aconvicted felon, but that has not stopped me from seeking the ultimateexistential truth. Rajneesh's life is a lesson for us all to practicewhat we preach. Bhagwan gave great advice but he could not heed hisown wise words. He is also a reminder not to take what people sayvery seriously. It is better to observe how people live and put lessemphasis on what they speak. Talk is cheap. Actions are more costlyand telling.

Do enlightened men have egos? In my younger idealistic years Iwould have said the answer is no. Rajneesh, Gurdjieff, and even J.Krishnamurti prove to me that they do (see links near the bottom ofthe page). I became convinced that Rajneesh had an ego when I saw himon television in chains being transported from jail to an Oregoncourthouse. In response to a reporter's question he looked into thetelevision camera and spoke to his disciples saying "Don't worry.I'll be back." It was not what he said but the look in his eyes thatwas positive proof for me. I could see his ego in action, calculatingand manipulating. Once you see something that clearly norationalizations can cover up the basic truth. Rajneesh wasmagnificently enlightened but he was also profoundly egotistical.

For ordinary humans the ego is the center of awareness and theVoid is perceived only at the periphery. People look at a picturetaken by the Hubble Space Telescope and they see the Void as anoutside object, not as a personal identity. When you becomeenlightened, either temporarily in a satori or permanently as aBuddha, the situation is reversed. Now the Void is your center ofawareness and the ego is at the periphery. Ego does not die, it justno longer takes the center stage of our attention.

Enlightenment is a functional and desirable disassociation ofidentity which is rooted in subtle body development and in physicalbrain function. The human brain is a biologically created thinkingmachine that has evolved for both personal self-preservation and thesurvival of the human species. The ego, which is a selfish motivatingforce, is needed to protect our colony of living cells, the physicalbody, from danger and to keep our cells replenished with food andwater. If you did not have an ego you would not be able to think,speak, or find food, shelter, and clothing. The ego function is sovital for survival that the human brain evolved with two potential egomechanisms, one a centralized ego and the second a larger and morediffuse backup system utilizing less central portions of the brain.

If the body and brain becomes physically ill with high fever andthe centralized ego center is damaged, the backup ego mechanism maytemporarily take over its function. This is ego displacement withoutenlightenment. The backup self-maintenance system keeps sleep walkersout of danger and helps enlightened human animals find food and thebasics of life so they do not physically die as a result of their owndeep meditation.

Enlightened humans do not feel their more diffuse ego and thusthey feel as free as space (the Void) itself. In actuality ego isstill present and working, just as our autonomic nervous system keepson working whether we are aware of its function or not. You do nothave to consciously tell your heart to beat 70 times a minute becauseit will keep on beating regardless of your awareness. The brainfunction that controls heart rate is automatic (autonomic) and doesnot need our consciousness to make it work.

Nature has also provided human animals with a strong, virtuallyunstoppable sex drive to ensure reproduction of the species. Becauseof the overwhelming importance and power of sex, most gurus,enlightened or not, have maintained active sex lives which are oftenkept secret for purely political reasons. In his early years Rajneeshlied about his strong sexuality, but to be fair this has to beunderstood in the context of a rigidly anti-sexual, and highlyhypocritical, Indian social structure. Later on, after his position asa guru had become solidified, Rajneesh publicly bragged about havingsex "with hundreds of women."

Rajneesh's sex life was of no interest to me and I do not findany fault with him for having the same sexual desires that all menhave. I do find fault when he was dishonest and cruel for selfishreasons. While living in Bombay, Rajneesh made one young womanpregnant through an aggressive and unasked for seduction. The youngwoman was highly upset and forced by circumstance to have anabortion. Rajneesh, protecting his image as a great guru, lied abouthis involvement and claimed that she had imagined the whole affair.In her anger, the young woman told the American Embassy her story.That incident marked the beginning of Rajneesh's troubles with theUnited States Government. Most of Rajneesh's close disciples believedthe young woman, not the much older "enlightened" man. Similarly,decades later many would believe a young White House intern, not amuch older Presiden Bill Clinton. Being President, or being"enlightened," does not always ensure good behavior.

All human beings are animals, specifically mammals. It has beenproven that human DNA is at least 98% the same as chimpanzee DNA.World history, Asian mythology, politics, and the world of alpha malegurus makes allot more sense if you keep that unavoidable scientificfact in mind. Our most primal subconscious motivating forces comefrom the animal world, which we are still a part of.

Some enlightened human animals have become fooled by thephenomena of ego displacement and thought they no longer had anypersonal selfishness that could cause trouble. Meher Baba spent muchof his life bragging about how great he was yet at his center he feltperfectly egoless. In truth he was very egoistic and should haverealized that even enlightenment is no excuse for bragging. The samefundamental misjudgment plagued Acharya Rajneesh. He became fooledinto thinking that he was above arrogance but that was simply not thecase.

Even enlightened humans have to mind their manners and realizethat the Atman is the wondrous phenomena they should promote, nottheir own fallible and temporary personalities. Ramana Maharshi hadthe right approach in this regard and that is one reason he is stillbeloved by all. Ramana Maharshi promoted the Atman, the universalcosmic consciousness, but never his own mortal body and mind.

Everyone who experienced Acharya Rajneesh's oceanic energy stillloves him, myself included. It is only because I value the truthabove all that I write what I believe are needed criticisms. If wecannot honestly analyze our mistakes then our suffering was a waste oftime. The ongoing cover-up of Bhagwan's frailties by hisestablishment disciples will only destroy the possibility of learningfrom his tragedy.

I miss Acharya Rajneesh, never Osho, because he was at hisfinest when he had no manipulating political organization surroundinghim. When Acharya Rajneesh was just a man in an apartment with oneold Chevrolet, not dozens of Rolls Royces, he was more honest andtrue. When he became his own political establishment things startedto go wrong and that is often the case with men of great power.

How can the ocean go into the drop if the drop has an ego init? My answer, as previously stated, is that the ego is an integralpart of the structure of the human brain. It is not simplypsychological but also neurological and hard wired into our neuralpathways (see neurological basis for a sense of 'self'). The self-survival, self-defense mechanism we call 'ego' cannot be destroyedunless the body dies.

Huston Smith, the well known author and professor of worldreligions, believes that no man attached to this mortal coil canachieve the ultimate transcendence. You first have to physically dieand when the last coil is broken you are totally free. I believe theego steps aside and becomes less of a problem for most enlightenedmen, but it is never totally destroyed as long as you have a physicalbody.

The Rajneesh scandal exposed the unconscious slavery of BhaktiYoga and the underlying fraudulence and corruption of "left-handedTantra." What is needed is an honest path, built on self-observation,self-reliance, and respect for truth. The days of the know-it-allguru are over. It is time to realize the source of all thingsdirectly.

It would be wonderful to believe that enlightened men wereperfect in every way. That would make life simpler and sweeter, butit would be fiction, not fact. In a way Bhagwan's tragedy has givenme more hope. If we have to become perfect human beings to becomeenlightened then who among us will ever reach that goal? If werealize that enlightenment is just a gradual progression of expansionof consciousness then the goal is attainable by all of us, givenenough time. If we work for hundreds of years, through many birthsand deaths, with a simple goal of just going a little deeper everyday, then with scientific certainty I believe those who seekenlightenment will attain it in time. All of the enlightened men Ihave known or have read about have made that statement in their ownwords. I believe that is a fact that can be trusted.

Addendum - On letters I have received

Any thoughtful person can imagine the range of leters I havereceived as a result of posting my Web essay on Acharya - Bhagwan -Osho - Rajneesh. To date about half of the letters have been fromformer Rajneesh disciples who generally agree with my comments and whothank me for putting them on the Web. Those who agree tell me theysee "compassion for all involved" on my Web page and that I got it"just about right."

The other letters I receive are from current disciples of thenow deceased Osho, many whom have never actually met the man inperson. Those letters range from death threats from several Germandisciples to poorly written and often unsigned insults. The OntarioConsultants on Religious Tolerance also gets lots of hate mail, butfrom many different cults, not just from one. It is interesting tosee how most cults are alike in this regard. The us vs. themmentality takes over and anyone who does not tow the party line of thecult is deemed a villain.

Meditation has nothing to do with cults, organizations,politics, or business, but for many meditation is a secondary issue.For them it is all about hero worship and blind obedience to thememory of a now dead guru, which is a silly waste of time in myopinion. Why not go directly to the source of all gurus and religionsthrough your own meditation? There is an old Zen saying that "Oneshould not become attached to anything that can be lost in ashipwreck." Certainly this admonition applies to gurus as well.

Several Rajneesh sannyasins have written me claiming to beenlightened and I hear reports that many Rajneesh disciples now makethat claim. One man said that he was "the new Osho" and invited me tovisit his Web page. His page displayed a large heroic picture ofhimself, much self-promotion, and an advertisement for prostitutes inRussia who he claimed were practicing "Tantra." So for him"enlightenment" and being "the new Osho" literally means to be apimp.

Another man, who had never met Osho in person, seemed to claimthat reading Osho's books helped him get over his "mental illness" andnow he was "enlightened" himself. He then forcefully instructed me torewrite my Web page to make it "less judgmental" and suggested thatOsho's hypocrisy was just a means to convey his enlightenment toothers. Well, he certainly conveyed his hypocrisy to others! Oneyoung woman, who grew up on the Rajneesh Oregon commune, asked me howshe could make money out of teaching Osho's meditation techniques. Ireplied that she should go to an employment agency and get an honestjob. Meditation and business do not mix and there are too many moneyhungry gurus out there already.

It shocks me to find that many Osho disciples do not care aboutthe crimes that were committed and are not bothered by the lies andhypocrisy of their own movement. They don't seem to comprehend thatas a result of the germ warfare attack committed by Rajneeshsannyasins on a restaurant in Oregon that meditation groups havegotten a very bad name around the world.

The unrelated but equally infamous Aum Shinrikyo (a Japanesecult) nerve gas attack on a subway station in Tokyo worsened thissituation considerably. The attitude of many Osho sannyasins seems tobe that as long as they get their psychic kicks out of a cult that itdoes not matter who was hurt or how unethical and disgraceful thebehavior was. In their minds everyone else in the world wasresponsible for the Oregon debacle except them. As a result of thiscareless attitude many Americans now feel that if a meditation groupstarts an ashram nearby it is time to buy a gun and a gas mask.

The amount of historical revisionism and propaganda put out bysome Rajneesh disciples rivals the efforts of Maoists during the 1960sand their state of mind is similar. If you want to believe in oneperfect man, a Pope of the universe, then anyone who criticizes thatPope is deemed a devil. Thus all the subtleties of my essay are loston these disciples and all they claim to see on my Web page is "hateand anger." Of course they do not see the hate in themselves directedat anyone who does not share their own narrow beliefs.

One long time disciple of Rajneesh expressed to me how angry shewas at the Dalai Lama for only visiting the Rajneesh ashram in Poonaonce. So for her the Dalai Lama is now a villain just because he didnot want to go back for a second visit. The level of intolerance andnarrow mindedness in the Rajneesh cult is mind boggling to me and Icannot understand how so many seemingly intelligent people can live insuch a small mental space, barricaded against all those who do notbelieve exactly as they do.

The last time I visited the Rajneesh ashram in Poona, India, wasin 1988. It was literally like a loud convention of German BrownShirts by that point. Osho was still very popular in Germany, due inpart to his comments in the German magazine Stern which were widelyinterpreted to be pro-Hitler. I myself do not believe Osho was aserious supporter of Adolf Hitler. It seemed to me that he was justplaying with people's minds, but he made his position ambiguousenough, with enough expressed sympathy for the Axis cause, that manyyoung Germans were thrilled by his words. Those who lost loved onesduring World War II were justifiably shocked.

At one point Rajneesh stated that "I have fallen in love withthis man (Adolf Hitler). He was crazy, but I am crazier still." I donot believe Rajneesh meant that statement literally. He was joking,but he had lost the common sense to know that one does not joke aboutloving a man who has killed millions of innocent people. Mel Brookscan get away with it because he is Jewish and has relatives who werekilled by the Nazis. For a "spiritual" man who portrayed himself asthe world's smartest, highest, and greatest soul, such a remark wasproof that his drug taking was destroying the quality of hisjudgment.

At the time of my visit Osho was in silence as he was angry athis own disciples. He wanted his sannyasins to demonstrate in thestreets of Poona against some Indian officials who had spoken outagainst him. Wisely, no one was interested in creating a newconfrontation. This spell of sanity among the flock irritated Oshowho canceled public talks as punishment. I was thus only able to seehim on video tape. On the taped lecture Osho was ranting emotionally,and factually incorrectly, about how the police in the United Stateshad stolen his collection of jewel encrusted watches. He said thatthey would never be able to wear them in public because his sannyasinswould see the watches on their wrists, at airports etc., and startscreaming out loud that "you stole Bhagwan's watch!" His words andmanner were so childishly irrational that he reminded me of JimJones. This Osho was a far cry from the serene, dignified, and highlyeloquent man I had met years earlier.

Why did Osho own 90 Rolls Royces? Why does Saddam Hussein owndozens of luxurious palaces? Those desires are products of the baseanimal mind of two men who grew up in poverty. Enlightenment does notcare about symbols of power and potency. Looking for hidden esotericexplanations for obsessive behavior is pointless. Is there an occultreason that Elton John spends over $400,000. per month on flowers? Isthere a secret spiritual reason that Osho had a collection of dozensof expensive ladies' watches? The universal cosmic consciousness iscompletely neutral and without any need to possess, impress, ordominate. It also cannot drive or tell time.

Shivamurti's book, Bhagwan: The God That Failed, could haveeasily also been entitled The Man Who Became His Own Opposite, or TheMan Who Betrayed Himself. I often tell people that if they could goback in time and kidnap the Acharya Rajneesh of 1970, then bring himup through the years to meet the Osho of the late 1980s, that the twomen would be at war with each other. Acharya would have hated Osho'spompous self-indulgence and Osho would have never tolerated the youngAcharya's brash criticisms. Acharya Rajneesh spoke of freedom andcompassion. Osho once said that he wished someone would"shoot" (assassinate) former Soviet leader Mikael Gorbachev because hewas leading the Soviet Union to Western style capitalism instead ofhis own imagined "spiritual communism." The change in his teachingwas remarkable, to say the least.

I would like to think that the early Acharya Rajneesh would haveapproved of my essay, but who can say for sure. For those who suggestI am not being loyal to Osho, I counter that I am honestly trying tobe loyal to Acharya Rajneesh, the man I took sannyas from, not Osho.He was a man I still deeply love and respect. But that AcharyaRajneesh died along time before Osho was even born and the two menwere as different as day and night.

My message to letter writers is to go ahead and write me. Youcan vent anger or thank me, but neither will have much effect on me asI have heard it all before, from both sides. I can only sigh and askmyself how Acharya Rajneesh, who started out as an anti-guruextraordinaire, ended up as he did with this current crop ofdisciples. Perhaps it shows that power does corrupt and that themeans rarely justifies the ends.

In the end where is meditation in all of this? "ColorPuncture," "Tantric Tarot Readings," encounter groups, and every phonycrackpot scam in the book is being peddled by Osho disciples for largesums of money. But what about meditation? Then I think back to theday when the just turned 40 year old Acharya wisely instructed afriendly Japanese woman, who was starting a new Rajneesh meditationcenter in Tokyo, that "Meditation must not be made into a business."The corrupt means have gotten so far out of hand that the originalintent of the ends, Acharya Rajneesh's original noble vision, has longbeen forgotten by many, but not by me.

"No Saint comes to the world with a new teaching or philosophy; hebrings the sameancient wisdom."

Maharaj Charan Singh, Sikh GuruFrom "Divine Light," p. 144

"They [the sages] conduct themselves in the everyday life inaccordance with the time-hallowed rules of conduct..."

"He should be known as the killer of the Brahman, who is a renegadebeyond the pale of all recognized schools of thought."

"Rajneesh/Osho is the worst thing that ever happened to spiritualityin the west. He rode herd over a mob of naive, idealistic spiritualseekers, but definitely lacked the traits of an enlightened master.

"Enlightened masters are not drug addicts. They do not turn Dharma onits head -- like calling "sannyasins" those who adopt a path exactlyopposite of Indian sannyas. They generally don't get arrested and havetheir mug shots taken, and ignomiously deported -- especially theIndian saints. (Christ was one notable historical exception to thisrule.) A true saint, by his spiritual power, is never humiliated orbested. He has sufficient merit to receive protection and his honoredin his lifetime.

"More to the core, an enlightened master does not encourage hisdisciples to abandon time-honored moral norms -- especially thedharma concerning sex restraint. Osho was basically a kind of pimp whoused the base desires of average people, along with their beautifulhunger for real spirituality, to build a financial empire and afollowing of worshippers who would do whatever he asked.

"When I think back about that 'baby boomer generation' of sincerespiritual seekers -- all those intelligent, skilled young men andwomen of European descent like me -- it makes me so sad. What aharvest of potential saints that was! How much good might have arisenif all those young, idealistic westerners could have fallen in with alegitimate spiritual master -- say, a Vivekananda or a Ramakrishna. Wewill never know! I look at them today, and their condition, and theyhave missed the boat.

"Thousands of sincere western seekers were misled and harmed by thenovel teachings of Osho. I have seen many of them in the aftermath.They always lack the satvic glow that comes from yogic sex restraint;they look like spent rakes aged well beyond their actual years. Evenin their age -- when they might show some spiritual attainment -- manystill crave sex, and all the ordinary base things. Despite Osho's"indulgence technique," they never got over sex addiction and lust.

"This was one of the Big Lies that Osho told: That by indulging yoursex desire you would transcend it. The great sages of Yoga spoke thereal and opposite truth: You get over sexual lust not by feeding it,but by restraining it until you encounter the higher thrill ofmeditative bliss. Meanwhile, it is only that renunciation -- thestoring of the sexual energy -- that enables one to contact thetranscendental bliss. This has been the message of the sages throughall time, including Lord Buddha, who was frequently ripped off by"the Bhagwan." Osho's teachings, though sprinkled here and there withmystical truths, were dead wrong in the most basic ways, andultimately spiritually destructive.

"The proof is in the pudding. Christ said that one can know a trueMaster by the "fruit" that emerges from him. Through his disciplesOsho gave us moral and family breakdown, drug addiction, a disturbedchildhood for many, and crime -- even terrorism. Osho set Yoga back inthe west perhaps hundreds of years.

"The saddest thing is what happened to all those children of Oshofollowers. Osho wanted them to grow up not knowing who their Fatherswere; raised by a mob, with no particular person as Parent. I can'tthink of anything much more ignorant, or more cruel. Krishnamurti wasright:Osho was a criminal."

-- Julian Leewww.Celibacy.info

Osho/Rajneeshism

Concise summary and history of the Osho/Rajneesh mess

The Rise And Fall of Rajneeshpuram

Sympathetic account of the Osho mess, but with a good accounting oftheir criminal activites

"It was later revealed in court testimony that Sheela’s [Rajneesheegroup] had attempted to poison two local communities by dumpingsalmonella into salad bars of several local restaurants . . . Thisepisode has the unfortunate distinction of being the first instance ofmodern bioterrorism in the U.S.

"Sheela’s group also allegedly fire-bombed a county records office inThe Dalles. One of the charges most heavily investigated was thepoisoning of Swami Deveraj (later Amrito), Bhagwan’s personalphysician. After the July 6 discourse, Ma Shanti Bhadra huggedDeveraj and jabbed him with a needle. The syringe contained a stillunidentified poison concocted by Rajneeshpuram nurse Ma Puja. Deverajbecame gravely ill and almost died at the Madras hospital."

"My Life In Orange"

The child of an Osho disciple recounts his crazy life growing up underthe "Rajneesh." Find out how bad it was. Many letters here from othergrown Osho children, or those raised in similar situations.

http://rajneesh.info/

Bhagwan Shree RajneeshAn Apologetics Index research resource

Rajneesh founded the Rajneesh Foundation International, and is one ofthe most controversial of modern gurus. In 1981 he was deported fromOregon under a bevy of serious criminal charges associated with hisashram, or spiritual community. His recent death did little to stemhis influence in Europe or America.John Ankerberg and John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age BeliefsHarvest House Publishers, Oregon, 1996.

In 1981 Rajneesh's cult purchased a dilapidated ranch in Oregon, U.S.,which became the site of Rajneeshpuram, a community of severalthousand orange-robed disciples. Rajneesh was widely criticized byoutsiders for his private security force and his ostentatious displayof wealth. By 1985 many of his most trusted aides had abandoned themovement, which was under investigation for multiple feloniesincluding arson, attempted murder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud inthe nearby town of Antelope. In 1985 Rajneesh pleaded guilty toimmigration fraud and was deported from the United States. He wasrefused entry by 21 countries before returning to Pune, where hisashram soon grew to 15,000 members. In later years he took theBuddhist title Osho and altered his teaching on unrestricted sexualactivity because of his growing concern over AIDS.

Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Encyclopedia Britannica

(...) the only known successful use of biological weapons in theUnited States was by the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult in 1984. Thegroup contaminated salad bars in 10 restaurants in The Dalles, Ore.,with Salmonella Typhimurium, causing several hundred people to becomeill.

Biological and Chemical Warfare Q and A, ABC News, Sep. 24, 2001

Hinduism is not by nature a proselytizing religion, however, in partbecause of its inextricable roots in the social system and the land ofIndia. In recent years, many new gurus, such as Bhagwan Shree Rajneeshand Satya Sai Baba, have been successful in making converts in Europeand the United States. The very success of these gurus, however, hasproduced material profits that many people regard as incompatible withthe ascetic attitude appropriate to a Hindu spiritual leader; in somecases, the profits have led to notoriety and even legal prosecution.Hinduism Outside India Encyclopedia Britannica

Name Change

In 1988 thirty years after taking the title, ''Bhagwan,'' (which means''the embodiment of God'') Rajneesh admitted the title and his claimto be God were a ''joke.'' ''I hate the word... I don't want to becalled Bhagwan (God) again. Enough is enough. The joke is over,''stated Rajneesh saying he was really the reincarnation of Buddha andclaiming for himself the new title of ''Rajneesh Gautaman theBuddha,'' (Star Telegram, Dec. 29, 1988; Sec.1, p. 3). Later he tookthe title, ''Osho Rajneesh,'' a Buddhist term meaning ''on whom theheavens shower flowers.'' (Ibid, 1/20/90).

Guru Rajneesh Dead at 58, Watchman Expositor, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1990

Guru Rajneesh Dead at 58, Watchman Expositor, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1990

Old Bhagwan, new bottles ''A 'new' spiritual guru turns out to have apast that includes lavish spending, orgies and bacterial terrorism.'',Salon.com, Oct. 20, 1999

Ever wonder what ever happened to the guy whose religious followerswere linked to the only episode of domestic mass bioterrorism inAmerica? Well, in the case of the late, notorious Bhagwan ShreeRajneesh, old renegade sex gurus never die. He just ''left his body''somewhere in India in 1990 and later emerged as a thriving, modern-daypublishing machine known as Osho.

Rajneesh's flock caught much of his meditative bon mots on tape, andnow incessantly recycle these ponderings as spiritual wisdom under theauthor name of Osho.

Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Entry in Encyclopedia Britannica

Rajneeshpuram: Another Tragedy in the Making? Statement by theChristian Research Institute

The Story of a Truly Contaminated Election Columbia JournalismReview, Jan/Feb 2000

The only proven incident of bioterrorism the United States has everexperienced, we learned, was a bizarre plot by the Rajneeshees, areligious cult, to steal a county election in Oregon in 1984. TheRajneeshees, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a self-proclaimedguru exiled from India, had moved into a ranch in rural Wasco County,taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope, andchanged its name to Rajneesh. Next, the cult sought to run the wholecounty by winning the local election in 1984.

The amazing story of the Wasco County election scandal was revealed tothe conference's riveted participants by Leslie L. Zaitz, aninvestigative reporter for The Oregonian, and Dr. John Livengood, anepidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control. To win the countyelection, the Rajneeshees planned to sicken a good portion of thepopulation in the town of The Dalles, where most Wasco County voterslive. Their weapon of choice to keep local residents from voting wassalmonella bacteria. Cult members decided to test the use ofsalmonella and, if successful, to contaminate the entire water systemof The Dalles on Election Day. First, the Rajneeshees poisoned twovisiting Wasco County commissioners on a hot day by plying them withrefreshing drinks of cold water laced with salmonella. Then, on ashopping trip to The Dalles, cult members sprinkled salmonella onproduce in grocery stores "just for fun." According to reporter Zaitz,that experiment didn't get the results they wanted so the Rajneesheesproceeded to clandestinely sprinkle salmonella at the town'srestaurant salad bars. Ten restaurants were hit and more than 700people got sick.

Wasco County Sheriffs This history includes a recounting of theRajneeshees involvement in this Oregon community

The site provides information that helps equip Christians to logicallypresent and defend the Christian faith, and that aids non-Christiansin their comparison of various religious claims. Issues addressedrange from spiritual and cultic abuse to contemporary theological and/or sociological concerns.

Apologetics Index also includes ex-cult support resources - includinga directory of cult experts (CultExperts.org), up-to-date religion andcult news (Religon News Blog: ReligionNewsBlog.com), articles onChristian life and ministry, and a variety of other features.

also called Osho or Acharya Rajneesh, original name Chandra MohanJainborn Dec. 11, 1931, India died Jan. 19, 1990, Pune, India

Indian spiritual leader who preached an eclectic doctrine of Easternmysticism, individual devotion, and sexual freedom, while amassingvast personal wealth.

As a young intellectual, Rajneesh visited with and absorbed insightsfrom teachers of the various religious traditions active in India. Hestudied philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, earning a B.A. in1955; he began teaching there in 1957, after earning an M.A. from theUniversity of Saugar. At the age of 21 he had an intense spiritualawakening, which inspired in him the belief that individual religiousexperience is the central fact of spiritual life and that suchexperiences cannot be organized into any single belief system.

In 1966 Rajneesh resigned from his university post and became a guru(spiritual guide) and a teacher of meditation. In the early 1970s heinitiated people into the order of sannyasis, who traditionallyrenounced the world and practiced asceticism. Reinterpreting the ideaof being a sannyasi in terms of detachment rather than asceticism,Rajneesh taught his disciples to live fully in the world without beingattached to it.

The first Westerners came to Rajneesh in the early 1970s, and in 1974the new headquarters of his movement was established in Pune. Thebasic practice taught at the centre was called dynamic meditation, aprocess designed to allow people to experience the divine. The centrealso developed a diversified program of New Age healing adopted fromthe West. Rajneesh became well-known for his progressive approach tosexuality, which contrasted with the renunciation of sex advocated bymany other Indian teachers.

Rajneesh moved to the United States in 1981 and, the following year,incorporated Rajneeshpuram, a new city he planned to build on anabandoned ranch near Antelope, Ore. During the next few years many ofhis most trusted aides abandoned the movement, which came underinvestigation for multiple felonies, including arson, attemptedmurder, drug smuggling, and vote fraud in Antelope. In 1985 Rajneeshpleaded guilty to immigration fraud and was deported from the UnitedStates. He was refused entry to 21 countries before returning to Pune,where his ashram soon grew to 15,000 members.

In 1989 Rajneesh adopted the Buddhist name Osho. After his death hisdisciples, convinced that he had been the victim of governmentintrigue, voiced their belief in his innocence and vowed to continuethe movement he started. In the early 21st century it had some 750centres located in more than 60 countries.

Rajneesh captured the nation's attention in 1981 when he moved hisashram community and 93 Rolls-Royces to Antelope, Oregon and advocated"enlightenment" through sexual promiscuity. Oregonians were concernedwhen Rajneesh's followers, who outnumbered the permanent residents ofAntelope, took over the small town changing its name to "City ofRajneesh." Critics charged that the Guru later tried to take over thecounty by bussing in street people gathered from the nation's innercities to out-vote the regular citizens.

Ma Anand Sheela, the Rajneesh's personal secretary, later pled guiltyto a number of charges including, "plotting to kill Mr. Rajneesh'sphysician with a poison-filled syringe and orchestrating a foodpoisoning outbreak that sickened more than 750 people in The Dalles,the county seat, as part of a plot to take control of thecounty," (Ibid).

The Bhagwan was also arrested and deported on charges of immigrationfraud as part of a plea bargain arrangement with U.S. officials. Hereturned to his native India after unsuccessfully attempting toimmigrate to several other countries.

Rajneesh's teachings included, "sex is fun, materialism is good andJesus was a madman," and the claim that he was "the world's greatestlover." His "Bible" called, The Orange Book described a typical yogasession, "Explode! Go totally mad.... Jump up and down shouting themantra `Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!' ...Each time you land on the flats of yourfeet, let the sound hammer deep into the sex center," (Ibid).

In 1988 thirty years after taking the title, "Bhagwan," (which means"the embodiment of God") Rajneesh admitted the title and his claim tobe God were a "joke." "I hate the word... I don't want to be calledBhagwan (God) again. Enough is enough. The joke is over," statedRajneesh saying he was really the reincarnation of Buddha and claimingfor himself the new title of "Rajneesh Gautaman the Buddha," (StarTelegram, Dec. 29, 1988; Sec.1, p. 3). Later he took the title, "OshoRajneesh," a Buddhist term meaning "on whom the heavens showerflowers." (Ibid, 1/20/90).

Thousands of the Guru's followers welcomed his death as "a liberationof the soul" and celebrations began in the Poona, India compound assoon as his death was announced.

http://www.watchman.org/na/rajneesh.htm

WEDnesday, Oct 20, 1999 09:00 EDTOld Bhagwan, new bottles

A "new" spiritual guru turns out to have a past that includes lavishspending, orgies and bacterial terrorism.By Dennis McCafferty

Ever wonder what ever happened to the guy whose religious followerswere linked to the only episode of domestic mass bioterrorism inAmerica? Well, in the case of the late, notorious Bhagwan ShreeRajneesh, old renegade sex gurus never die. He just "left his body"somewhere in India in 1990 and later emerged as a thriving, modern-daypublishing machine known as Osho.

Rajneesh's flock caught much of his meditative bon mots on tape, andnow incessantly recycle these ponderings as spiritual wisdom under theauthor name of Osho. This Osho has now generated an impressivelydiversified empire of books, video tapes, television shows, corporateseminars (via Osho "trainees") and even a 34-acre luxury spa in Pune,India. With more than a dozen titles published and still going strong,his worldwide book and audio book sales now surpass $1 millionannually. Due out in mid-November from the ever-prolific (albeit,technically dead) Osho: Three new titles from St. Martin's Griffin --"Creativity," "Courage" and "Maturity," all priced at $11.95 -- tomark the 10th anniversary of his death in January. And in May 2000, anew "autobiography" with the working title "Osho: The Autobiography ofthe Spiritually Incorrect Mystic."

To date, the published works of Osho have left readers with littleclues as to his former identity. So consumers may not know thatthey're actually plunking down their cash for rehashed ramblings fromthe late Rajneesh, the controversy-plagued spiritual leader kicked outof the United States after his legal woes heated up in the mid-1980s.Rajneesh made headlines with a lifestyle that included a convoy ofmore than 90 Rolls-Royces, flashy jewelry and enough hedonisticpursuits to earn him the title "world's most famous sex guru."

Rajneesh and his followers settled on a 65,000-acre ranch nearAntelope, Ore., wrestled political control from town office holdersand renamed Antelope "Rajneeshpuram." But they were essentially thesect that couldn't shoot straight. During a conflict with Oregonauthorities, the followers were accused of arson and attempted murder.In perhaps the most notorious incident, some members of the Rajneeshcrew were linked to a 1984 case in which salmonella bacteria wassprinkled on the contents of local restaurant salad bars and sickened750 people. Rajneesh was deported on immigration fraud charges anddied in Pune on Jan. 19, 1990.

However, Rajneesh lives on with an estimated 5,000 of his lectures nowmarketed as Osho tapes and books. He'll answer e-mail questions on theWeb and make the occasional remark on current affairs. (Live! From theOsho Commune International home base in Pune: "Clinton needs TantraSutra, not Kama Sutra.")

The books are less than enlightening about Osho's time spent here onEarth; their references to Rajneesh are rare and fuzzy. In thecurrent, uncorrected proofs of the three new St. Martin's titles, forexample, the brief "About the Author" section makes no mention at allof Osho's prior identity.

Says Klaus Steeg, president of Osho International in New York: "Hechanged his name. He was called Bhagwan. But the year before he died,he dropped that. It's a complete deconstruction of his personality."And perhaps more importantly, of all the bad P.R. that his former namebrings to mind.

Steeg promises that, while the "autobiography" will tie up some ofthese loose connections, the wealth of Osho's heavily marketed inner-self discourses do not because they're intended as guides. MichaelDenneny, the St. Martin's senior editor currently overseeing Oshotitles, says the publishing company, as is its policy, provides apicture of Rajneesh in the books. Still, the photos identify him onlyas Osho. "If he changed his name to Osho," Denneny reasons, "then it'slike Muhammad Ali and Cassius Clay." As far as how forthcoming theautobiography will be, that remains to be seen. Osho "distinguishesbetween what is true and what is fact," Denneny says. "He prefers thetruth." Jim Fitzgerald, who edited a 1998 St. Martin's-published workfrom Osho called "The Book of Secrets," is more blunt: "I'd beshooting myself in the foot to say that's the guy [whose people]poisoned salad bars.''

Well, forgive and, most of all, forget, right? At least a few mediatypes have short memories. Last year, the New York Times featured apuff piece on Osho International's Lexington Avenue office digs,describing Osho as a now-deceased Indian mystic and making noreference to Rajneesh. A 1998 travel piece in Yoga Journal describingthe Pune attraction as a "New Age Xanadu" did connect Osho to theRajneesh name, but blithely omitted mention of the salad bars or otherunsavory details.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/10/20/osho/

The Story of a Truly Contaminated ElectionBY LAWRENCE K. GROSSMAN

On November 30, when Vice President Gore's vote challenge was makingFlorida the epicenter of the universe, I happened to be in St.Petersburg, Florida, moderating a conference on "Bioterrorism and theMedia." Terrible as the subject of the bioterrorism conference is, itpromised at least to offer a welcome respite from the endless butirresistible election mess. As it turned out, I was wrong. Thecenterpiece of the conference was, of all things, the case study of atruly contaminated election.

The only proven incident of bioterrorism the United States has everexperienced, we learned, was a bizarre plot by the Rajneeshees, areligious cult, to steal a county election in Oregon in 1984. TheRajneeshees, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a self-proclaimedguru exiled from India, had moved into a ranch in rural Wasco County,taken political control of the small nearby town of Antelope, andchanged its name to Rajneesh. Next, the cult sought to run the wholecounty by winning the local election in 1984.

The amazing story of the Wasco County election scandal was revealed tothe conference's riveted participants by Leslie L. Zaitz, aninvestigative reporter for The Oregonian, and Dr. John Livengood, anepidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control. To win the countyelection, the Rajneeshees planned to sicken a good portion of thepopulation in the town of The Dalles, where most Wasco County voterslive. Their weapon of choice to keep local residents from voting wassalmonella bacteria. Cult members decided to test the use ofsalmonella and, if successful, to contaminate the entire water systemof The Dalles on Election Day. First, the Rajneeshees poisoned twovisiting Wasco County commissioners on a hot day by plying them withrefreshing drinks of cold water laced with salmonella. Then, on ashopping trip to The Dalles, cult members sprinkled salmonella onproduce in grocery stores "just for fun." According to reporter Zaitz,that experiment didn't get the results they wanted so the Rajneesheesproceeded to clandestinely sprinkle salmonella at the town'srestaurant salad bars. Ten restaurants were hit and more than 700people got sick.

"They apparently didn't expect it to be such a huge success," Zaitzsaid. "The attention attracted by the salad bar escapade broughthordes of health officials and investigators into The Dalles. Itdashed the cult's plan to do worse on Election Day." Health officialssoon pinned down salmonella as the cause of the sudden outbreak, butput the blame on food handlers. In 1984, who could have imaginedbioterrorism?

The Rajneeshees also bused in homeless people by the hundreds from allacross the country to register in Wasco County so they could vote inthe '84 election. That plan failed when, alerted by the massregistration of the homeless, the state threatened to conductadministrative hearings on every new local voter. The cult'sconspiracy to contaminate the election failed and a year later, theentire Rajneeshee commune collapsed under the weight of an internalconflict. Cult informers confessed to numerous crimes, including plotsto kill the U.S. attorney, the state attorney general, and the guru'sdoctor, as well as the plot to contaminate the election. Vials ofsalmonella were found on the Rajneeshees' ranch.

Zaitz and his investigative reporting team produced a twenty-partseries on the Rajneeshees for The Oregonian starting in June 1985.After the commune collapsed they went back and produced a follow-upseries. Among other things, they learned that the Rajneeshees hadsecretly put together a top-ten hit list on which Zaitz's nameappeared as number three.

"If anything, the local news media were restrained and conservative intheir coverage of the salmonella episode," Zaitz told the conference."There was nothing alarmist, nothing to trigger a public panic. Moreaggressive coverage perhaps would have heated up already tensecommunity relations with the commune. Yet the benign treatment alsogave the Rajneeshees comfort that they could get away with it . . . .Fortunately, the commune collapsed before that could happen. Butconsider this: If they knew reporters were watching closely, wouldthey have even tried?"

Something like that might be said of the presidential balloting mess.If, in the days before the voting, reporters had focused on thebotched job the nation's election districts were doing with votingprocedures for the central political event of our democracy, theelection of a president, would the balloting and ballot-counting havebeen quite so off-base?

For epidemiologist Livengood, however, who had been dispatched toWasco County to solve the cause of the mysterious outbreak, the storyhad a different, simpler moral: "Don't eat at salad bars."

Lawrence K. Grossman, a former president of NBC News and PBS, is aregular columnist for CJR.

Ernest D. Mosier followed Harold Sexton and was Sheriff of WascoCounty two different times. He first served from 1953 to September,1963, when he resigned. He came back to spend six more years asSheriff from July 1971 to 1977 when he was appointed to replace theresigning William L. Bell.

A native of The Dalles, Mosier graduated from The Dalles High Schooland later attended Willamette University. Before joining the Sheriffs'Office, Mosier was an office manager at a number of companies in TheDalles area.

Sterling Arthur Trent was appointed to take Mosier's place when heresigned. A native of Gorin, Missouri, Trent served as Sheriff ofWasco County until June 1968, when he died in office. He moved toOregon in 1913 and was a Deputy Sheriff from July 1954 until he wasappointed Sheriff in September 1963.

A graduate of The Dalles High School, Trent worked in the constructionbusiness for a time and also managed a tire shop and was a stockrancher for a while. When Trent died, Grant Cyphers was appointed totake his place, but Cyphers served only a month before it was dis-covered he was of the wrong political party.

William L. Bell was appointed to take Cyphers' place and remainedSheriff of Wasco County until July 1971, when he resigned to take ajob with the Board on Police Standards and Training. A native of LongBeach, California, Bell moved to Oregon in 1947.

Bell graduated from Wheeler County High School in Fossil and attendedfive terms at the University of Oregon and two terms at Oregon Collegeof Education. He signed on with The Dalles Police Department in 1957as an officer but left for two years to serve in the United StatesArmy from 1958 to 1960. He remained with The Dalles Police Departmentuntil 1968, when he was appointed to take the place of Cyphers.

Ernest Mosier came back to serve as Sheriff when he was appointed totake Bell's place, remaining this time until 1977, when John B. Magillwas elected. Magill-- whose family was an old ranching family in WascoCounty -- served a four-year term before Robert G. "Bob" Brown waselected in 1981.

Born in Council Bluff, Iowa, Brown moved to Oregon in 1963 from SouthDakota. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in Omaha in 1962with degrees in business administration and engineering. He worked forseven years as a superintendent and engineer for Peter Kiewet & Sonsin Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Washington andOregon. From 1967 until 1980, Brown worked for Tenneson Engineering inThe Dalles.

Art Labrousse won the 1984 election and was re-elected in 1988 tobecome the first two-term Sheriff in Wasco County since 1968.

Big Muddy-ed Affair

In 1981, Wasco County school children learned a new word:Rajneeshees. Even before the start of the school year, a few lessonson this strange East Indian word and what it meant. Followers of thenomadic Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh purchased the rambling,64,229 acre Big Muddy Ranch in Wasco and Jefferson counties in July of1981 as the central commune for the Bhagwan and his devotedfollowers.

At first, the residents of nearby Antelope viewed the suddenappearance of the red-clad Rajneesh disciples, known as Sannyasins butmore commonly referred to as Rashneeshees, as nothing more than acuriosity. It wasn't long, however, before they realized theseriousness and full intentions of the Rajneesh movement, or"invasion,'' as some locals preferred to call it.

While the Bhagwan's chief aide Ma Anand Sheela was declaring themovement's plan to operate a simple farming commune in the desert, hisother disciples were busy in the background developing grand plans fora huge resort city for up to 100,000 Rajneeshees.

Within a matter of weeks, construction began on a number of buildingswithin the newly-christened Rancho Rajneesh, including a shoppng mall,restaurant, a resort-like motel and commune service offices. In manycases, Bhagwan followers moved ahead without securing proper countybuilding permits.

In the meantime, new recruits continued pouring into the desertcommune -many of them wealthy European and American followers who weremore than willing and able to finance the Bhagwan's movement.

But the Rajneesh movement began to falter in October 1981 when twomonths after arriving at Rancho Rajneesh, the Bhagwan applied to theU.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for an extension of hisvisa. Immigration officials began a full-scale investigation into theactivities of the religious sect, focusing on the guru's intent incoming to the United States and a pattern of suspect marriages betweenthe U.S. citizen and foreign followers.

The investigation turned up information that the Bhagwan and hisfollowers left India in the spring of 1981 owing the Indian governmentmore than $6 million in unpaid taxes. An Indian tax court voided theRajneesh organization's tax-exempt status and assessed millions ofrupees (Indian currency) in back taxes.

But the movement forged ahead in the Oregon desert. In April 1982,Rajneeshees, voting as a bloc, managed to secure enough votes to takeover the town of Antelope, which was renamed Rajneesh. They also votedto incorporate Rancho Rajneesh -- the former Big Muddy Ranch as thetown of Rajneeshpuram.

With this newly-acquired power, Rajneesh leaders began making moredemands on county and state leaders. They demanded access to recordsand reports by Wasco County officials pertaining to the commune andits activities. They also demanded state basic school support for theRajneeshees' school, even though the state rejected the demand, sayingpublic tax dollars go to support public schools, not private ones likethe Rajneesh school.

But problems were just beginning for the movement. Over the next threeyears, Rajneeshee leaders were accused of the salmonella poisonings ofhundreds of residents of The Dalles and some 500 persons filed suitagainst the sect. Sheela, along with two other disciples, were accusedin a 1985 federal grand jury indictment of plotting the unsuccessfulmurder of the Bhagwan's private physician.

And the Bhagwan himself broke his own vow of public silence inSeptember 1985 with a scathing attack on Sheela and a half dozen ofher allies, claiming they had betrayed him and his followers and thatthey had stolen $55 million from the commune. An article in TheOregonian on Sept. 17, 1985, quoted the Bhagwan as saying Sheela "andher gang had turned my commune into a fascist concentration camp."

The Bhagwan's claims that militant Rajneeshees had been stockpilingassault weapons and had been engaged in illegal wire-tapping at theranch touched off a multi-agency investigation into the allegedcriminal activity which proved to be the beginning of the end forRajneeshpuram.

On Oct. 23, 1985, a federal grand jury in Portland secretly indictedthe Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Sheela and six other Sannyasins forimmigration crimes. Two days later, a Wasco County grand jury returnedindictments against Sheela and two others, charging them with theattempted murder of Swami Devaraj, the Bhagwan's personal doctor.

By that time, Sheela and about 25 of her followers had already fledthe ranch to Germany.

But Rajneeshpuram was thrown into turmoil on Oct. 28, 1985 when theBhagwan' s loyal followers leared he had been arrested in Charlotte,N.C., trying to flee immigration authorities on a privately-charteredjet bound for Bermuda.

At about the same time, word arrived from Germany that Sheela and twoRajneesh women had been arrested by West German police.

The Bhagwan was returned to Oregon to face a 35-count federalindictment for immigration-related crimes, although he initially pledinnocent to all 35 counts. But as part of the plea-bargainingagreement with federal prosecutors, the Bhagwan on Nov. 14, 1985,agreed to plead guilty to two of the felony counts, to pay the courtcosts and to leave the United States.

The Bhagwan returned to India and promptly told reporters gathered ata New Delhi airport that the United States -the place he called a landof religious freedom and opportunity four years earlier -- was "just awretched country."

Within a week of his departure, thousands of former followers wereleaving Rajneeshpuram in busloads. Within a month of their departure,residents of the former Antelope reclaimed their town -and itsoriginal name. But legal action against the Rajneeshees would continuefor many years.

Sheela and 20 other disciples later were indicted on federal wire-tapping charges. Numerous civil suits were filed against the bankruptreligious sect, some of which still have not been resolved.

On July 22, 1986, Sheela was sentenced to up to 20 years in prison andordered to pay a $400,000 fine after pleading guilty to state andfederal charges which included masterminding a massive electroniceavesdropping system at Rancho Rajneesh, plotting the attempted murderof the Bhagwan's physician and plotting the salmonella poisoning ofabout 750 people in The Dalles.

For many Rajneeshees, the dream of carving a utopian Shangri-la out ofthe barren, Central Oregon desert ended long before Jan. 18, 1990--the day Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh died in Ashram in Pune, India, at theage of 58.

For Wasco County Sheriff Art Labrousse, it was a rare learningexperience -- one he says he will never forget.

"They were well organized," Labrousse recalls. Or at least, betterprepared to take control of the tiny town of Antelope than localofficials were prepared to stop them. Labrousse and his 13-Deputyforce had their hands full trying to maintain law and order with thesudden invasion of thousands of red-clad Rajneeshees into WascoCounty.

What made it so difficult, says Labreusse, was the cloak of secrecywhich seemed to engulf Rancho Rajneesh.

"Few people actually knew what was going on out there," he said.Labrousse recalled the telephone call to his office on July 3, 1985,from someone at the ranch reporting a possible drowning in a lake onthe ranch. Before he could summon the Wasco County medical examiner tothe scene, LaBrousse received another call, this time reporting that ayoung man had been pulled from the lake and briefly revived. The manwas taken to the medical center in Jefferson County, but died,Labrousse was told.

Since the attending physician, who was a Rajneeshee doctor, also wasthe assistant medical examiner for Sherman County, Labrousse was toldby the state there was no need to call in the state medical examiner.No body fluid or any other evidence was obtained by the assistantmedical examiner.

"They had a doctor who was an assistant medical examiner for JeffersonCounty -- he ruled the man's death was accidental drowning," Labroussesaid.

Two days later, Labrousse was drinking coffee with an Oregon StatePolice officer in Antelope. "We were talking about the Fourth of Julyfire in The Dalles, caused by fireworks, when one of the Rajneeshpeace officers from Antelope said, 'Well, we had a great fireworksshow ourselves -- we cremated a boy who just died."

Labrousse cringed, not only because it was too late to do anything ifthere had been a criminal deed, but because he had heard of similarcremations occurring at Rancho Rajneesh in the past.

"We'll never know how many were cremated out there," he says. "Butevery time they had a festival or celebration out at the ranch, therewas a death."

Labrousse said he sent a memorandum to the Wasco County Board ofCommissioners, suggesting the county not permit any future festivalsor celebrations at the ranch unless Rajneesh officials agreed inadvance that any deaths which occur during the event would beinvestigated by the Wasco County medical examiner.

But the county never had to act on Labrousse's recommendation. Withintwo weeks, the Bhagwan himself would expose Sheela and her gang andRajneeshpuram would begin to crumble.

The Missing Thumb KillerPictured Left: Levi Chrisman

Levi Chrisman was involved in dozens of puzzling murder and criminalinvestigations during his 22-year tenure as Wasco County Sheriff. Butfew were as complex as the shooting death of Jim Doran, a Bend lumbermill worker, in early September, 1921.

The only clues to the killer's identity were a missing Dodge touringcar and a missing left thumb.

Doran's body had been found by a young couple, driving a lonelycountry road two miles west of The Dalles, late one Saturday night.Doran had been shot four times -- once in the head and at least threetimes in the chest. The body was partially hidden behind some bushesalongside the country road.

In their initial search of the victim's clothing for some type ofidentification, investigators found an expensive gold pocket watch anda few dollars in change. This led Chrisman and his Deputies to assumerobbery was not the motive behind the murder.

Chrisman's Chief Deputy Guy Elton noticed what appeared to be a trailof blood leading away from the body into a grove of trees. The Sherifffollowed the trail and found a second gunshot victim with a bulletwound in his shoulder. The man was rushed to a hospital in TheDalles.

After undergoing successful surgery to remove the slug, the man agreedto talk to Chrisman and Elton. He said his name was Bill Ducharme, andhe identified his slain companion as Jim Doran. Ducharme said he andDoran had left Bend earlier that day with a third man, whose name hecould not recall.

Ducharme told the Sheriff that he and Doran had finished work at thelumber mill and both were anxious to get to Doran's ranch atMcMinnville. But they didn't have transportation. The man, whoappeared to know Doran, offered to drive them in his car if they paidhis expenses. They agreed.

After having dinner in The Dalles that night, Ducharme said thestranger offered to take them to a friend's place just outside of townwhere they could spend the night. But a short way out of town,Ducharme said the man pulled his car to a halt and told him they wouldhave to walk across a field to get to his friend's place.

Ducharme told Chrisman he had started out ahead of the other two whenhe heard a shot. He turned and saw Doran tumble to the ground. Then,Ducharme recalled, the stranger started firing at him so he beganrunning. One of the shots caught him in the shoulder, Ducharme said,but he kept running until he collapsed in a grove of trees.

The wounded man could give only a general description of the gunman:Approximately 40 years of age, medium build, black hair, gray eyes.His description of the man's car was even more general: A large, blacktouring car. He couldn't recall the make and didn't notice the licensenumber.

Chrisman put out the obligatory dispatches to all police officers andagencies within a 100-mile radius, telling them to be on the lookoutfor a large, black touring car with a dark-haired man in his early 40sbehind the wheel. He didn't hold out much hope, however.

When they received no response to the telegrams, Chrisman and Eltonwent back to the murder scene the following morning. They found aclear set of tire tracks in the soft, dirt shoulder of the road andhad the tracks photographed, hoping they could come up with a matchafter searching The Dalles for the missing touring car and its tires.But the hunch proved both time-consuming and futile.

Next, Chrisman and his men went to the lumber mill in Bend, whereDucharme and Doran had worked, figuring the killer might also beemployed at the mill. None of the employees could remember seeing astranger with Ducharme and Doran at the mill the previous Friday whenthe mill closed.

With their search for clues at a standstill, Chrisman suggestedinvestigators canvass gas stations and restaurants along the road thethree men were traveling Saturday, to see if anyone recalled seeingthe trio. The plan worked. A gas station owner reported three mendrove into his station Saturday afternoon in a nearly-new Dodgetouring car. The observant station owner said when the car's driverpaid for the gas, he noticed the man's left thumb was missing. Thestation owner described the other two men in the car and they matchedthe descriptions of Ducharme and Doran.

Encouraged at last by some useful leads, lawmen began compiling a listof all new Dodge touring cars in the county and their owners. If oneof the owners had a left thumb missing and the car's tire tread marksmatched those of the tracks found near the murder scene, Chrisman feltconfident they would have their killer.

Unfortunately, Chrisman discovered, there were about 100 persons inthe county who owned newer Dodge touring cars. But with the help ofDeschutes County Sheriff S.E. Roberts and his Deputies, lawmen wereable to whittle the list of possible prospects to four. The first twomen on the list had two thumbs. The third was a man named Abe Evans,who lived just outside of Bend.

They didn't find Evans at home, but his wife provided the informationthey had been seeking: Her husband was missing his left thumb.

Mrs. Evans said her husband had gone to Salem looking for work. Shewas able to provide officers with a license number for her husband'scar.

Lawmen put out an all-points bulletin on Abe Evans, along with thelicense number of his car and a complete description of the vehicle.

After hearing the broadcast, Jefferson County Sheriff H.C. Topping andhis men began a wide-scale search of county gas stations, restaurants,garages and motels for the wanted man and his car. They finally founda motel owner in Metolius, not far from Madras, who informed them hehad rented a room to a man with a missing left thumb and a Dodgetouring car.

They found Evans, in an obvious state of intoxication, in one of themotel rooms, trying to sleep off his miseries. They took Evans intocustody and transported him and his car to Deschutes County. Chrismanchecked the Dodge touring car's tire treads with his photographs. Theywere a perfect match.

Evans denied shooting Ducharme and Doran, claimed he had left them ata hotel in The Dalles, that he took off on his own, got drunk andcouldn't remember anything after that. But a search of the suspectturned up $130 in cash. After two days of questioning, however, Evansbroke down and confessed.

He admitted knowing Doran for some time. He said he met Doran indowntown Bend on Friday, the day before the shooting, and the twowalked to Doran's bank to cash his $150 paycheck from the mill. Dorantold Evans that he and a friend were going to McMinnville to spend thewinter, and Evans admitted that's where he got the idea to offer thema ride as a way of getting them out into the country where he couldkill and rob them.

Evans told investigators he believed he had killed Ducharme, too. Hesaid he took Doran's billfold with most of the cash, but left the goldwatch and the change so it would not look like a robbery. He said hethrew the gun into some bushes, drove back to The Dalles to get somewhiskey, and drove south to the motel in Metolius.

A Wasco County Grand Jury indicted Evans of first-degree murder. Evanspled not guilty by reason of insanity. A Wasco County Circuit Courtjury, however, convicted Evans of first-degree murder, with norecommendation for mercy.

On Oct. 8, 1921, Evans was sentenced to hang for the killing of JimDoran. His attorney appealed the sentence to the Oregon Supreme Court.But the high court, after numerous legal delays, upheld the sentence.

Evans never went to the gallows, however. On June 5, 1924 -- the daybefore he was to be executed-- Gov. Walter M. Pierce commuted Evans'sentence to life imprisonment.

Description: Former Rajneeshee leader Anand Sheela -- once notoriousin Oregon as the spokeswoman for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh -- now takescare of frail and elderly patients in two private nursing homes inSwitzerland.

Headline: Indian guru follower Anand Sheela arrested after German TVshowSource: The Oregonian

Date: 2000/01/22

Description: German police picked up Anand Sheela in a town nearFrankfort, Germany, last week after she appeared on a television showto mark the 10th anniversary of the death of her former mentor, Indianguru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Sheela was quickly released, however,because the Interpol warrant for her arrest had been canceled.

Description: They called it the ''new terrorism:'' a virulent strainof anti-American aggression in which enemies without scruples woulduse germs and toxic gases, not guns and bombs, to kill tens ofthousands of civilians at a stroke.

Headline: Meditation protected by patentSource: NZZ Daily Edition

Date: 2000/06/29

Description: Now a dispute has broken out over that in India whichhas burst the scintillating soap bubble of the symbiosis of money andspirit. Professor Jain still likes to talk so beautifully aboutdissolving all restricting relationships and he plunders the world'sliterature in doing so, but when it comes to bringing his insights of''One World'' to the people, he pays very close attention to settingup his own boundary posts in the form of trademarks, patents,copyrights and license agreements. Even Dynamic Kundalini Meditationhas been reported as a trademark.

Headline: A Sign of MammonSource: taz (Germany)

Date: 2000/07/20

Description: Who would be surprised that, in the commune, a bitterpower struggle is raging for control of hundreds of meditation centersaround the world, for the marketing rights of 1,500 book titles, andof sound cassettes and videotapes of lectures from the Master.

Headline: Expert: US Open To BioterrorismSource: AP

Date: 2000/08/22

Description: Advances in technology make the United States morevulnerable to bioterrorism than to nuclear attack, a leading expert indefending against biological weapons said Tuesday.

Headline: Former cult camp becomes playground for childrenSource: AP

Date: 2000/08/27

Description: The middle schoolers go about their summer campactivities, unaware that all around them, thousands of followers oncetoiled in the service of their leader, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Headline: FDA Designates Bioterrorism AntidoteSource: AP

Date: 2000/08/31

Description: If bioterrorists ever attack the United States withanthrax, the antibiotic Cipro will be the first line of defense forcivilians who breathe the deadly bacteria, the government decidedThursday.

Headline: The battle over bio-terrorSource: Salon

Date: 2000/09/12

Description: In short, ''We can conjure up a worse-case scenario,''says John Parachini, chief of the Washington office of the MontereyInstitute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies. ''But we can alsoconjure up a meteor hitting the Earth.''

Headline: Two Rajneeshee members plead guiltySource: The Oregonian

Date: 2000/12/16

Description: Two high-ranking officials in Oregon's once notoriousRajneeshee cult pleaded guilty Friday to 15-year-old federalwiretapping charges, canceling international warrants that effectivelyconfined them to Great Britain.Notes:

Description: That's the view of U.S. scientist Dr. Ronald Atlas whohas been advising the U.S. government on the growing concern thatcriminals will target food, water, air and individuals with viruses,bacteria, fungi and toxins to further their cause.

Headline: Osho, Guru Extraordinaire, Is Long Gone -- But His BooksLive OnSource: Inside

Date: 2001/05/15

Description: Once known for his fleet of Rolls-Royces, the latemotivational thinker Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is now being packaged asDeepak Chopra minus the Ayurvedic medicine. His sales are in themillions, and his returns a mere 4 percent.

Headline: Biological and Chemical Warfare Q and ASource: ABC News

Date: 2001/09/24

Description: Now that terrorists have demonstrated they're capable ofcarrying out unthinkable attacks of extreme devastation, some believethe United States should be on higher alert for a biological orchemical attack. ABCNEWS.com talked to several experts to learn aboutthese weapons, the preparedness of the United States for such attacksand possible defenses against them,

Headline: America's First Bioterrorism AttackSource: TIME

Date: 2001/10/08

Description: In the fall of 1984, members of the Rajneeshee, aBuddhist cult devoted to beauty, love and guiltless sex, brewed a"salsa" of salmonella and sprinkled it on fruits and veggies in thesalad bar at Shakey's Pizza in The Dalles, Ore. They put it in blue-cheese dressing, table-top coffee creamers and potato salads at 10local restaurants and a supermarket. They poured it into a glass ofwater and handed it to a judge. They fed it to the district attorney,the doctor, the dentist. Their plan: to seize control of the countygovernment by packing polling booths with imported homeless peoplewhile making local residents too sick to vote.

Headline: Oregon town has never gotten over its 1984 bioterrorismscareSource: AP

Date: 2001/10/19

Description: In 1984, followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan ShreeRajneesh spiked salad bars at 10 restaurants in town with salmonellaand sickened about 750 people.

Headline: Apocalyptic cult methods explain bin LadenSource: USA Today

Date: 2001/11/05

Description: Hassan observes that many of the techniques that heencountered with the Moonies are evident in bin Laden's camps: "socialisolation, controlling their sleep, showing them non-stop videos ofMuslims dying, being buddied up, so that they're never alone. ...Destructive mind control strips away their ability to think forthemselves." The cult framework goes a little way to explaining thedissonance between who these hijackers were and what they eventuallydid on behalf of al-Qa'eda.

Description: Harris's story illustrates some of the challenges USofficials face as they try to determine whether foreign or domesticterrorists sent the anthrax-laced letters that have killed fourpeople.

Description: Oregonians were shocked to learn in 1985 that thisoutpost of transplanted suburbanites was a launching pad for the firstlarge-scale biological attack in U.S. history: the poisoning of 751people in The Dalles with restaurant food sprinkled with salmonellagerms grown in a commune laboratory. But cult psychology experts saysuch incidents should come as no great surprise to anyone. They merelyunderscore the fact that seemingly normal, well-educated people can bepersuaded to commit unthinkable crimes, including flying airlinersinto skyscrapers.

Headline: FDA issues anti-terror food adviceSource: FDA

Date: 2002/01/10

Description: The only known terror attack on U.S. food occurred inthe 1980s, when a cult in Oregon contaminated salad bars withsalmonella bacteria. Experts say fresh produce may be the food mostvulnerable to tampering because it is often eaten raw and is subjectto little government inspection.

Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan shot down the idea of a formalpolicy pact with the Bank ofJapan as the government aims to strike a delicate balancebetween pushing the central bank to ease policy further andrespecting its independence. The idea of a formal policy accord hasbeen floated in thepast by critics of the central bank who feel it could be doingmore to combat grinding deflation that has plagued the world'ssecond-largest economy for most of the past 15 years. But Kan, who hasalso been calling on the BOJ to takebolder action, said he saw no immediate need for such a pact,echoing the view held by a majority of policy makers andpoliticians wary of threatening the central bank'sindependence. "I gather advocates of such a policy want an arrangementwhere the government increases the deficits and the BOJcooperates by buying more government debt," said Izuru Kato,chief economist at Totan Research. "They must be thinking central bankindependence allows theBOJ to be too hesitant about buying government bonds andtherefore they should strip the BOJ of its independence," Katosaid. Kan steered clear of saying exactly what he wants thecentral bank to do at its policy meeting next week, wherefurther easing is likely to be discussed. [ID:nTOE6230A7] BOJ boardmember Miyako Suda, seen as hawkish on monetarypolicy, said on Wednesday that the central bank will maintain avery accommodative stance, but she added that the BOJ hadimplemented an appropriate policy on prices. "Suda did not sound sopositive about taking more stepsblindly. It's not clear how strong the measures the BOJ takesnext week will be," said Naomi Hasegawa, senior strategist atMitsubishi UFJ Securities. With the government's room for furtherfiscal stimuluslimited by a public debt that is already close to 200 percentof GDP, the six-month old administration has put pressure onthe central bank to stem deflation. But the BOJ's options are limitedas long as the economicoutlook remains weak. Expectations of further price declines in futurecouldpersuade consumers and companies to delay spending andinvestmen